A Study on Quality of Life of Elderly Population in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh currently experiences the significant increase of aging population with poverty and breakdown of various social and traditional bonds. So, this study was undertaken to assess the background profile, pattern of morbidity and overall quality of life (QoL) of elderly population in Bangladesh. Data were collected from 250 elderly populations (male=168, female=82) aged 60 and over from three villages of Pabna district, Bangladesh through a pre-structured questionnaire. In each domain of the World Health Organization (WHO) WHOQoL-BREF, descriptive statistical analysis was presented and the internal consistency was measured by Cronbach alpha. Finally, to compare the mean domains score of QoL, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis test were used. The results revealed that most common health complications are insomnia and eye problems. The highest QoL score was found (52.87±18.74) in social relationship domain and least score was found (48.65±16.39) in environmental domain. Elderly males are shown the higher mean domains score in all domains except overall QoL whereas elderly females are shown the higher mean score in overall QoL domain. Again, elderly who are presently workless and live in the joint family have the better mean score in physical and environmental domain respectively. To develop the QoL of the elderly, emphasis should be given to improve their financial condition and traditional family bond.

Sleep Problems of Older People in Bangladesh

“…Age was found to be a non-significant factor related to older people of sleep problems, consistent with two other studies' results [12][13][14][15], but inconsistent with another's [16]. The inconsistency could be due to differences between participants' mean ages.…”

“…In China, approximately 42 percent of people aged 60 or above suffered from sleep problems [13]. In Bangladesh, about 39 percent of older people reported sleep problems [14]. In the latter study, participants reported sleep problems, but it was not evaluated by measurement instruments.…”

Demographic Transition and Home Care for the Elderly in Bangladesh: An Urban Rural Comparison

“…As the home care issue was not included in the national survey, data were collected using a structured questionnaire interviewing the respondents aged 60 years and above living in urban and rural area of Sylhet district. Existing research is limited in the area of role and status of elderly, identify the causes and consequences of the aging [15] with their needs, their projected distribution [1], care services and existing situation [7], their needs and health condition [16], socio-economic status even quality of elderly life [17].…”

Relationship Between Sleep Problems and Depression of Older Persons in Bangladesh

“…Inadequate sleep can lead to difficulty sustaining attention, a slowed reply time, impairments in memory and attention, and reduced performance [5]. In Bangladesh, about 39 percent of the older persons reported sleep problems [6]. Various psychiatric problems have been linked to sleep problems in older persons [7], particularly depression [8][9].…”

“…In Bangladesh, older persons (aged 60 or above) had a 2.79 times higher risk of depression compared to middle-aged persons (aged 40-59) [13]. To reiterate, studies [6,13] have indicated that older persons in Bangladesh were suffering from sleep problems and depression. However, their sleep problems were not measured using instruments.…”