Abstract
Background : In India, there is low awareness about special needs of the elderly and their care takers. We are yet to understand the basics of elderly care (physical and mental health, psychological and social support). Objectives : (1) To study the dimensions of quality of life (QOL) of elderly people living in community and in old age homes (OAHs). (2) To determine the predictors of QOL among elderly people. Materials and Methods : A cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken with elderly people (age ≥60 years) from the community and from OAHs residing in Lucknow city, India were the participants. Multistage sampling technique was used in the general population and all the elderly people living in OAHs were included in the study. 141 elderly people from community and 101 elderly people from OAHs were studied after taking oral consent and scoring ≥20 on Mini Mental State Examination instrument. Instrument used for assessing QOL was World Health Organization QOL-bref. Tools used to screen out anxiety and depression cases were Geriatric Depression Scale - Hindi version and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. Results : The mean scores of QOL domains were higher among married elderly people, elderly people without mental health problem and elderly people without psychosocial issue/s. Similarly, it was higher among elderly people living in the community and paid OAHs than in free OAHs. Conclusion : QOL of elderly residing in paid OAHs were similar to those from the community. Financial dependency was the strongest predictor of QOL.
Highlights
Quality of life (QOL) of elderly people is becoming even more relevant with demographic shift happening toward an ageing society.[1]
Among the elderly, there is variation between those living in old age homes (OAHs) and those living in the general population
Results of this study showed that statistically significant differences were observed between community and free OAHs for physical health (P < 0.001), psychological health (P < 0.001), environmental health (P < 0.001) domains of QOL
Summary
Quality of life (QOL) of elderly people is becoming even more relevant with demographic shift happening toward an ageing society.[1] There are indications that concerns related to QOL in elderly people are different from that of the general population.[2] among the elderly, there is variation between those living in old age homes (OAHs) and those living in the general population. In India, there is low awareness about special needs of the elderly and care takers are yet to understand the basics of elderly care (physical and mental health, psychological and social support).[2] The researcher was interested in studying QOL of the elderly people and factors affecting it in Lucknow, India and believes that the results obtained will help in planning and policy making with regards to elderly care in the future.
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