Factors affecting quality of life of the elderly in the residential homes of Tehran (2009)

The elderly are one of the increasing social groups in the present communities which has gained a growing importance with respect to the age pyramid of our country. In order to make decisions and plan for this group, we must know their problems exactly on the basis of objective and scientific observation. The objective of this study was to determine factors affecting the quality of life of the aged in the capital and their relationship with demographic variables. In this cross-sectional study, the quality of life of 130 elderly people in the residential homes of Tehran was surveyed through random sampling. Necessary data was obtained by means of the standard questionnaire WHOQOL-BREF covering four domains, i.e. physical, psychological, social and environmental aspects; and through live interview. In order to analyze the obtained data descriptive statistics, T-test, ANOVA and SPSS (version 17) were used. 85 women and 45 men, whose mean age was 73 years, took part in the study. The study indicated that only in physical domain women had lower QOL scores than men (P<0.001). Surveying the relationship between QOL and variables such as age, marital status and educational level showed that only in physical domain the difference was significant (P<0.001). There was a difference between QOL scores and age, marriage, education in physical domain too. QOL of people, who had a history of falling down, was significantly lower than the others. Men, those with higher education, and singles with no history of falling down have a better quality of life compared to others. As far as falling down is concerned, more attention to applying strategies to decrease falling of the elderly is necessitated.