TY - JOUR AU - Kefeli, Zurina AU - Johari, Fuadah AU - Ahmad, Nursilah AU - Mohd Daud, Siti Nurazira AU - Zaidi, Mohd Azlan Shah PY - 2017/05/31 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Factors Affecting Quality of Life of Medical Assistance Recipients of Zakat Fund in Malaysia JF - International Journal of Economics, Management and Accounting JA - IJEMA VL - 25 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - 10.31436/ijema.v25i1.398 UR - https://journals.iium.edu.my/enmjournal/index.php/enmj/article/view/398 SP - 125-140 AB - <p>Poor people generally have difficulty in accessing good healthcare services. This can consequently lead them to have a lower quality of life. This paper investigates whether <em>zakat</em> medical assistance helps improve the health of the <em>aṣnāf</em> (<em>zakat</em> recipients) and in turn upgrade their quality of life. The crosstab analysis of 60 respondents in Penang, Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan in 2014 shows that 93.4 percent of the <em>aṣnāf</em> reported that <em>zakat</em> medical assistance has increased their quality of life. Meanwhile, multiple regression analysis shows that among the predictors of health, income and education, health status is the significant predictor of quality of life of the <em>zakat</em> recipients. These findings would be useful for policy makers, especially the State Islamic Religious Councils, in order to focus on improving the level of quality of life of the <em>aṣnāf</em> and continue to increase the allocation of medical financial assistance from <em>zakat</em> to the eligible <em>aṣnāf</em>. At the micro level, the medical assistance rendered would help improve both health status and quality of life. As a result, <em>zakat</em> has great potential to be one of the economic tools to alleviate poverty among Muslims in Malaysia. </p> ER -