Hypertension almost invariably impacts people’s quality of life (QOL). The WHO Quality of Life-BREF instrument (WHOQOL-BREF) is used widely in high-income countries and is comprised of physical, psychological, social and environmental domains. Few studies have measured QOL of people with hypertension in rural areas in low- and middleincome countries, including Indonesia. Our study aims were: 1) to assess whether WHOQOL-BREF is suitable for studying QOL among rural Muslim Indonesians with hypertension, and 2) to describe the characteristics of rural Muslim Indonesians’ QOL. In 2014, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of QOL among 447 residents of an economically stressed rural district in West Java. To assess WHOQOL-BREF’s goodness of fit, we performed structural equation modeling. We calculated Cronbach’s alpha to assess internal consistency reliability. Independent t-tests and one-way ANOVAs were used to compare differences between socio-demographic groups. Participants were mostly women (77%). Mean age was 54 and 24% were widows/widowers. Most (62%) had less than primary level education. Regarding measures of goodness of fit, only root mean square error of approximation reached a marginally acceptable level. Cronbach’s alpha for the overall scale was fairly high (0.893). Psychological QOL received the highest mean domain score (13.8). Environmental QOL received the lowest (12.6). The highest mean item score was for mobility. Financial status, access to information, and leisure received the lowest mean item scores. Domain scores differed by socioeconomic status. Low QOL on one or more domains was associated with lower education, being a widow/widower, and living in a remote area. Since the model showed that WHOQOL-BREF did not achieve desired levels on two of three goodness-of-fit indexes, other aspects of the participants’ QOL may have gone unmeasured. When providing healthcare services to Muslim patients with hypertension in rural Indonesia, planners and providers should attend to aspects of QOL identified in this study
