Motherland or Home Country

Abstract

The present study’s aim was to compare health-related quality of life (QoL) as measured by the SF-36 between 51 Jews from the former Soviet Union who immigrated to Israel between 3 and 8 years ago (Group 1) and 52 Jews who currently live in Russia (Group 2). Both were compared to a matched control group of 49 veteran Jewish nonimmigrant Israelis (Group 3). The results showed few differences between Group 1 and Group 2. However, both groups scored significantly lower than Group 3 on five of the eight subscales on the SF-36. It was concluded that Russian Jews who had immigrated to Israel did not differ significantly with regard to QoL compared to those who stayed behind in Russia and that more than 8 years are needed to reach the level of veteran Israelis who enjoy better QoL than both Jews in Russia and former Russians who immigrated to Israel.

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