Quality of life of elderly people living in a retirement home

Sonja Čanković; Eržebet Ač Nikolić; Vesna Mijatović Jovanović; Svetlana Kvrgić; Sanja Harhaji; Ivana Radić

doi:10.2298/5068

Sonja Čanković Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Eržebet Ač Nikolić Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Vesna Mijatović Jovanović Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Svetlana Kvrgić Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Sanja Harhaji Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Ivana Radić Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2298/5068

Keywords: aged, homes for the aged, quality of life, questionnaires, serbia,

Abstract

Background/Aim. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified four broad domains as being universally relevant to the quality of life, namely physical, and psychological health, social relationships, and environment. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and quality of life of old people. Methods. The World Health Organization Quality of Life BREF questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) was used to assess quality of life on a random sample of 200 people aged 60 years and over who lived in the Retirement Home in Novi Sad. Items within the questionnaire were organized into four domains: physical, psychological, social relationships and environment. Results. The majority of the participants were women (69.8%). The mean age was 79.2 years (SD = 6.6 years). Most of them were widowed (73.4%). More than two thirds of participants (68.8%) reported that they were ill at that moment and almost half of them (48.8%) had cardiovascular, 18.5% musculoskeletal, 9.6% endocrine and 5.9% neurological disease. In the social relations domain scores were lower in males (t = 2.4; p = 0.017). Scores of other domains did not differ significantly with regard to the age, educational level and the marital status of the participants. Participants who reported the presence of a disease had significantly lower mean scores of physical, psychological and environment domain. Conclusion. The presence of disease is a relevant factor for quality of life, whereas age, education and marital status do not reflect on physical health, psychological and environmental domain of quality of life.

References

McDowell I. General Health Status and Quality of Life. In: McDowell I, editor. Measuring Health: A guide to rating scales and questionnaires. 3rd. New York: Oxford University Press; 2006. p. 520−703.

Lakić A. Quality of life in childhood and adolescence: from concept to practice. Vojnosanit Preg 2012; 69(3): 257−9.

Bowling A. Measures of broader quality of life. In: Bowling A, editor. Measuring Health. A review of quality of life measure-ment scales. 3rd ed. Berkshire: Open University Press; 2005. p. 148−64.

WHOQOL Group. The World Health Organization quality of life assessment (WHOQOL): Development and general psy-chometric properties. Soc Sci Med 1998; 46(12): 1569−85.

United Nations. World Population Ageing 2009. 2009. [cited 2012 Nov 20]. Available from: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPA2009/WPA2009_WorkingPaper.pdf.

United Nations Population Fund. Ageing in the Twenty-First Century. A celebration and a challenge. [cited 2012 November 23]. Available from: http://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2012/UNFPA-Report-Appendices%20EndNotes.pdf.

Halvorsrud L, Kalfoss M, Diseth A. Reliability and validity of the Norwegian WHOQOL-OLD module. Scand J Caring Sci 2008; 22(2): 292−305.

Bilgili N, Arpacı F. Quality of life of older adults in Turkey. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2014; 59(2): 415−21.

Skevington SM, Lotfy M, O'Connell KA. The World Health Or-ganization's WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment: psy-chometric properties and results of the international field trial. A report from the WHOQOL group. Qual Life Res 2004; 13(2): 299−310.

Ač-Nikolić E, Čanković S, Dragnić N, Radić I. Assessment of va-lidity and reliability of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire for the elderly population in Vojvodina. Zbornik Matice srpske za društvene nauke 2010; 131: 211−20. (Serbian)

Arslantas D, Unsal A, Metintas S, Koc F, Arslantas A. Life quality and daily life activities of elderly people in rural areas, Eskişehir (Turkey). Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2009; 48(2): 127−31.

dello Buono M, Urciuoli O, de Leo D. Quality of life and longevity: a study of centenarians. Age Ageing 1998; 27(2): 207−16.

Browne JP, O'Boyle CA, McGee HM, Joyce CR, McDonald NJ, O'Malley K, et al. Individual quality of life in the healthy elderly. Qual Life Res 1994; 3(4): 235−44.

Lai K, Tzeng R, Wang B, Lee H, Amidon RL, Kao S. Health-related quality of life and health utility for the institutional el-derly in Taiwan. Qual Life Res 2005; 14(4): 1169−80.

Barua A, Mangesh R, Harsha KH, Mathew S. A cross-sectional study on quality of life in geriatric population. Indian J Com-munity Med 2007; 32(2): 146−7.

Kirchengast S, Haslinger B. Gender differences in health-related quality of life among healthy aged and old-aged Austrians: cross-sectional analysis. Gend Med 2008; 5(3): 270−8.

Ač-Nikolić E. Influence of some components of health on the quality of life in the elderly [thesis]. Novi Sad: Faculty of Medi-cine University of Novi Sad; 2002. (Serbian)

Nagatomo I, Nomaguchi M, Matsumoto K. Sex Difference in De-pression and Quality of Life in Elderly People. Jpn J Psychiatr Neurol 1994; 48(3): 511−5.

Bassey EJ. Longitudinal changes in selected physical capabilities: muscle strength, flexibility and body size. Age Ageing 1998; 27(Suppl 3): 12−6.

World Health Organization. Ageing and health, man and women age in the same way. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1999.

Baltes PB, Baltes MM. Successful Aging: perspectives from the behavioral sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1990.

Fry PS. Whose quality of life is it anyway? Why not ask seniors to tell us about it. Int J Aging Hum Dev 2000; 50(4): 361−83.

Tu Y, Lai Y, Shin S, Chang H, Li L. Factors Associated with Depressive Mood in the Elderly Residing at the Long-Term Care Facilities. Int J Gerontol 2012; 6(1): 5−10.

Chachamovich E, Trentini C, Fleck MP. Assessment of the psy-chometric performance of the WHOQOL-BREF instrument in a sample of Brazilian older adults. Int Psychogeriatr 2007; 19(4): 635−46.

Kempen GI, Brilman EI, Ranchor AV, Ormel J. Morbidity and quality of life and the moderating effects of level of education in the elderly. Soc Sci Med 1999; 49(1): 143−9.

Hagedoorn M, Van YN, Coyne JC, van Jaarsveld CH, Ranchor AV, van Sonderen E, et al. Does marriage protect older people from distress? The role of equity and recency of bereavement. Psy-chol Aging 2006; 21(3): 611−20.