Health-related quality of life of the geriatric population living in rural areas of West Tripura district of India: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Growing life expectancy is challenging the quality of healthcare for elderly. Information regarding health-related quality of life (QOL) may help policymakers to design need-based health programs for this population. Objectives: The objective of this study is to estimate health-related QOL of the geriatric population living in rural areas of West Tripura district and to compare it between ethnic and nonethnic populations with respect to important domains. Methodology: This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted between February 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020, among 225 geriatric subjects of rural West Tripura district chosen by multistage sampling. The World Health Organization's QOL–BREF scale was used for data collection. Results: Among the study population, 46.2% had overall good health-related QOL. About 52.9% had good QOL in environment, and 37.3% had good QOL in social relationship domains. Marginally higher proportion of the subjects from ethnic origin had better QOL than the nonethnic, but it was not significant. A higher proportion of the Muslim subjects had better QOL than the rest, but it was also not significant. Bivariate analysis showed significant associations between QOL with age, sex, literacy, financial condition, socioeconomic status, and type of family. Multivariate analysis identified male sex, younger age, and living with spouse as the significant predictors of good QOL. Conclusion: Overall health-related QOL of the geriatric people living in rural areas of West Tripura district is poor, but younger male subjects of ethnic origin and living with spouses may enjoy relatively better QOL.