Quality of life in the community-dwelling elderly and associated factors: A Cross-Sectional study

Introduction: Recent medical and health advances have reduced mortality, consequently a relative increase in life expectancy and aging of population. One of the indices that properly indicate the status of elderly is the quality of life. Identifying the factors affecting the quality of life of the elderly in Zahedan, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 600 elderly people referring to the Zahedan health centers. Sampling method was two-stage clustering, the data were collected in the check list by using quality of life (QOL) questionnaire SF12 through interview and then were analyzed using independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression. Results: Of the 600 elderly men and women over 60 years, 472 subjects participated in the study, of whom 291 (61%) were male and 182 (39%) were female. The mean age of the study subjects was 66.2(4.04), and the mean overall quality of life scores in males and females were 28.4(3.7) and 29.07(3.7), respectively. The mean and standard deviation of physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores in males and females were 12.3(2.2) and 16.6(2.5), respectively. Age had inverse correlation with QOL and MS and had a direct and significant relationship with PCS. In multiple linear regression, significant relation was observed between chronic illness, hypertension, skeletal disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, marital status, hookah using and smoking with PCS and also between marital status, hypertension and mental illness with MCS. Conclusion: What is obtained from this study and the other relevant studies indicate that QOL is a multifactorial phenomenon that is influenced by demographic, clinical and behavioral factors, but the role of chronic diseases is more obvious. Therefore, it seems necessary to adopt health policies to correct the lifestyle of society.