THE DETERMINANTS OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN OLDER ADULTS OF CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES

Abstract

The growing number of older prisoners has become a global challenge (Brie W., Cyrus A., Robert G., 2012). Over the past decade, there has been a concurrent disproportionate growth in the number of older prisoners. These figures were observed in the USA, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom and other countries statistics (William B.,2012). The arrest and sentencing of older adults are on the rise, and researchers consider prisoners to be older, or geriatric, by the age of 50 or 55 years (Aday R. 2003, Williams B. 2010, Besdine R. 2005). Older prisoners are likely to suffer from geriatric syndromes, falls, sensory impairment, incontinence, mental illness, depression, and other disease than other population in prison and society (Landefeld CS. 2004, Greinfinger R. 2007). The main target of the research is to investigate QOL (quality of life) determinants of older offenders in Azerbaijan prisons. This research is the first step in Azerbaijan Penitentiary service to evaluate geriatric symptoms and QOL elements. The objectives of the research: 1) descriptive and comparative analysis of different international literature, articles, policy papers, 2) explanatory investigation survey results analyzed during the study. For this purpose WHOQOL-Bref survey instrument was used to assess determinants of quality of life. This survey contents four domains: Physical, Psychological, Social Relationships and environment, and the data was examined with SPSS program. Considering the results of survey and comparing different literatures the some recommendation were made, that can be used in different programs and future researches