Quality of Marital Life and Its Demographic Related Factors in the Elderly in Isfahan

The World Health Organization emphasizes the importance of quality of married life throughout a person's life, the aim of this study was to investigate the quality of marital life and its demographic predictors in the elderly.

This is a cross-sectional study on 200 elderly people over 60 years’ old who referred to Isfahan health care centers. The data of this study were collected by Fletcher Quality of Marital Life Questionnaire (2000). Then the relationship between quality of marital life and its dimentions with demographic factors was analyzed by logistic regression.

In 46% of the elderly, the quality of marital life was favorable. The highest utility was in the dimension of commitment (63%) and the lowest utility was in the dimension of sexual arousal (31%). The Adjusted Odds Ratio of favorable quality of marital life in people with higher incomes than lower income people were 2.14 and this relationship was in dimensions of satisfaction, commitment, intimacy and sexual arousal. The adjusted odds ratio of favorable sexual arousal in people under 70 compared to those over 70 was 3.90. Gender, education, and occupation did not predict the quality of married life.

The quality of married life is unfavorable in more than half of the elderly in Isfahan, and it becomes less favorable with increasing age and lower income.