Health-related quality of life of elderly living in nursing home and homes in a district of Iran: Implications for policy makers

Abstract

As the life expectancy increases, the importance of elderly people's quality of life becomes more apparent. The presentinvestigation is aimed to assess the health-related Quality of life of elderly people living in two settings: (i) residents in anursing home and (ii) elderly people living at homes in a district of North Iran. The study was conducted as a crosssectionalanalytical study. Data was collected by face to face interviewing technique using the Iranian version of theshort form health survey questionnaire (SF-36) and a form designed by the researchers for recording sociodemographiccharacteristics. The data are drawn from 220 elderly (>60 years of age) sampled from both settings. Datawere analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The average scores for several domains including totalphysical health, total mental health and overall health (total SF-36 score) were less than 50, which can be interpretedas a less desirable level of health-related quality of life in Iranian elderly people. Residents living at homes scoredbetter in all domains of SF-36. Multiple regression analysis indicated that residency, marital status and education had asignificant coefficient for total SF-36 score. The health related quality of life of elderly people in one city in Iran, particularly those in nursing homes, is inadequate. There is a need to design programs to increase elderly people'sinteraction with others and establish social networks for them and opined that these may enhance a sense of positivequality of life among the elderly. © Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee).