Sociodemographic Factors Affecting the Quality of Life of Elderly Persons Attending the General Outpatient Clinics of a Tertiary Hospital, South-South Nigeria

BACKGROUND: In the last few decades, the evaluation of the quality of life (QoL) among older adults has become increasingly important in health as well as in social sciences. There has been growing emphasis on the need to understand what influences older people's QoL as it is argued to be of greater value than the traditional outcome measures, such as health status. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the sociodemographic factors affecting the QoL of elderly patients attending the General Outpatient Clinics of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), Uyo. METHODOLOGY: The study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Three hundred and ten elderly persons attending the General Outpatient Clinics of the UUTH for medical conditions between July and September 2014 were consecutively recruited for the study. Details of sociodemographic information were taken, and QoL of respondents was assessed using the older persons' QoL questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences-17.0, and the level of statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: Of the three hundred and ten respondents recruited for the study, One hundred and seventy-seven (57.1%) were female and one hundred and thirty-three (42.9%) were male. The female-to-male ratio was 1.3:1. The age range of the respondents was between 60 and 90 years and the mean age (±standard deviation) was 67.4 (±6.6) years. Two hundred and thirty-two respondents (74.8%) had at least primary level of education and one hundred and sixty-one (51.9%) were married. The median monthly income was ₦ 25,500.00 with interquartile range of ₦ 10,000.00 to ₦ 50,000.00. From the study, 85.5% of the elderly reported an overall good QoL. High-income grade (P = 0.019), high social class (P = 0.036), and high level of education (P < 0.001) were the factors associated with good QoL in this study on univariate analysis. CONCLUSION: A high percentage of respondents reported an overall good QoL. High-income grade, high social class, and high level of education were the factors associated with good QoL.