A Study on Quality of Life of Elderly Population in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh currently experiences the significant increase of aging population with poverty and breakdown of various social and traditional bonds. So, this study was undertaken to assess the background profile, pattern of morbidity and overall quality of life (QoL) of elderly population in Bangladesh. Data were collected from 250 elderly populations (male=168, female=82) aged 60 and over from three villages of Pabna district, Bangladesh through a pre-structured questionnaire. In each domain of the World Health Organization (WHO) WHOQoL-BREF, descriptive statistical analysis was presented and the internal consistency was measured by Cronbach alpha. Finally, to compare the mean domains score of QoL, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis test were used. The results revealed that most common health complications are insomnia and eye problems. The highest QoL score was found (52.87±18.74) in social relationship domain and least score was found (48.65±16.39) in environmental domain. Elderly males are shown the higher mean domains score in all domains except overall QoL whereas elderly females are shown the higher mean score in overall QoL domain. Again, elderly who are presently workless and live in the joint family have the better mean score in physical and environmental domain respectively. To develop the QoL of the elderly, emphasis should be given to improve their financial condition and traditional family bond.