Quality of Life Among Elderly People in Chitwan District, Nepal

Abstract

As the world's elderly population grows, the Quality of Life (QoL) of the elderly becomes an emerging issue and plays a vital role in social development. The aim of this study was to assess the QoL of elderly people in the Chitwan district, Nepal. An analytical cross-sectional study design was employed to evaluate the Quality of Life (QoL) among the elderly residing in the 17 wards encompassing all municipalities and the metropolitan area. The sampling method employed was Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS), which facilitated the selection of 26 respondents from each of the chosen wards. In total, 442 elderly individuals were recruited from the community and surveyed using the WHOQoL-brief questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data in SPSS 20. Most of the elderly mentioned neutral status in both overall QoL (71%) and satisfied with their health status (48.4%). Elderly aged 60-69 years had higher QoL scores in the physical (p<0.007) and psychological (p<0.014) domains compared to other age groups. There was statistically significant association of physical domain with age group, marital status, religion, and presence of chronic illness. The psychological domain was associated with age group, education, religion, and presence of chronic illness. The social domain was associated with marital status, type of family, education, ethnicity, and presence of chronic illness. The environmental health domain was associated with sources of family income, marital status, education, different living arrangements, religion, ethnicity, and presence of chronic illness. All QoL domains showed a positive correlation (p<0.01) with each other as well as with the overall health and quality of life of elderly people. The overall health status and QoL of elderly people was neutral. As increasing the age of the elderly, almost domains of quality of life were declining. Living arrangement with family was associated with the environmental health domain. The absence of chronic illness was associated with all domains of the quality of life of the elderly.