An epidemiological study on quality of life among elderly in an urban area of Thirumazhisai, Tamilnadu

INTRODUCTION: One of the most important indicators of health and well being of the elderly is the quality of life they live in. Owing to the rise in elderly population due to the demographic transition, there is growing need to address the health concerns of this population. AIMS: The study was undertaken to find out the Quality of Life among the elderly and the associated factors. METHODOLOGY: This is a descriptive cross sectional study done in urban area of Thiruvallur district Tamil Nadu. To arrive at the required sample of 199, elderly people above 60 years were selected by probability proportionate to size sampling. Semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection regarding sociodemographic details and related factors. Katz scale was used to assess activities of daily living and Quality of life (QOL) was assessed using WHO quality of life BREF (WHOQOL BREF) questionnaire. RESULTS: Moderate score in QOL was obtained in all the 4 domains with highest in Psychological and environmental domains. Nearly 99% of had full activity in Katz scale. All the three QOL domains were found to have statistical significant association with age and education. Gender and marital status were found to be associated with psychological domain, and employment/pensioner status with physical domain. CONCLUSION: Measures like Health education have to be targeted for the elderly in ways to improve their physical and psychological wellbeing which can imporove the quality of life they live in. Primary care and family physicians have to be made aware and empowered to identify the various domains of QOL in elderly and to identify in which domain the person needs to take care the most.