The objective of this research was to assess the quality of life (QoL) experienced by individuals managing long-term indwelling urinary catheters (IUC) in their homes in Northwestern Tanzania. As far as we are aware, this represents the initial report on QoL for home-dwelling patients with long-term IUC across Africa. A descriptive cross-sectional investigation was carried out from December 2016 to September 2017. We conveniently enrolled 202 adult outpatients (aged 18 years or older) who were residing with a long-term IUC. QoL assessment employed the WHOQOL-BREF instrument. Data cleaning and coding were performed in Microsoft Excel, followed by analysis in STATA version 13.0. Descriptive analyses calculated means with standard deviations for continuous variables and frequencies for categorical ones. Associations between variables and QoL were evaluated using t-tests assuming equal variances. Independent samples t-tests compared numerical socio-demographic factors with QoL. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. In this research, a mean score of 50 or higher denoted good QoL, with higher scores reflecting better QoL. The participants' median age was 69 years (IQR 61–77). Most were male (195, 96.5%), married (187, 92.6%), and possessed primary-level education (116, 57.3%). Overall QoL was low across all domains: physical health mean score 36.67 ± 0.89, psychological domain 29.54 ± 0.87, social relationships 49.59 ± 1.61, and environmental domain 26.05 ± 0.63. Married individuals scored somewhat higher in the social domain (51.1 ± 1.6) compared to unmarried ones (31.1 ± 5.4; P = 0.001). Participants with at least primary education had marginally higher environmental domain scores (26.1 ± 0.7) than those without formal education (23.5 ± 1.5; P = 0.039). Individuals with long-term IUC in Northwestern Tanzania exhibited generally low QoL in every domain. Married participants and those with primary or higher education showed minor advantages in the social and environmental domains, respectively. We suggest enhancing socioeconomic conditions and providing closer home-based monitoring, particularly for married patients with long-term IUC.
