This is a descriptive study and the aim of the study was to determine the quality of life in earthquake victims with chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart disease and chronic obstructive lung disease) and the contributing factors.

The study sample included 34 earthquake victims with chronic diseases who were staying in Ford Otosan ten city and prefab houses in Gölcük after the Marmara Earthquake (About 100 person was living in the area). Data were collected with a demographic form and SF-36 Quality of Life Scale. Statistical analyses of the obtained data were made with Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test.

The mean quality of life score of the victims was 39.2±6.6 on physical health and 35.5±9.6 on mental health. The victims with a higher level of education had a better quality of physical health (p=0.03), but the quality of their mental health was not significantly different from that of the victims with a lower level of education. Other factors such as age, marital status, the number of chronic diseases and duration of the diseases were not found to affect the quality of physical and mental health.