Determinants of quality of life among the elderly population in urban areas of Mangalore, Karnataka

Quality of life and its associated factors among home-dwelling older people residing in the District of Colombo, Sri Lanka: a community-based cross-sectional study

“…We also found that financial independence increases the overall QOL and domain-specific QOL of older people, which is supported by most other studies 2–5 21 35 36. As 61% of the Sri Lankan older people had no regular paid job,37 encouraging and supporting them towards income-generating activities would make them financially independent and economically productive and thereby improve their QOL.…”

“…The significant highest and the lowest mean scores are observed for the environmental (64.61±11.96) and the social relationships (46.34±20.08) domains, respectively. Higher QOL scores were reported from rural populations,5 21 22 while the scores are lower from urban areas 3. Moreover, studies in rural areas report higher scores for social well-being22 26 in addition to the overall QOL.…”

“…It is reasonable to conclude that this study selected a representative sample of the elderly population of Sri Lanka, and to the best of our knowledge was conducted for the first time in the Colombo District with a focus on specific aspects. Similar sampling methods of the older population have been adopted by Devraj and D’mello, 21 Kumar et al , 3 Hameed et al 22 in India and by Siriwardhana et al 20 in Sri Lanka to assess limitations in activities. With respect to assessing the QOL, similar sampling methods were adopted by Su et al 23 among the elderly in China, and by cross-sectional studies carried out by Araujo et al 24 in Brazil and by Curcio, Henao and Gomez 25 in Colombia.…”

“…Disease conditions were determined based on the diagnostic conclusions made by medical professionals in charge of the elderly. Although most of the previous studies2 3 5 21 22 26 applied the WHOQOL BREF questionnaire to assess the QOL, the domains used in the present study did not make direct comparisons possible due to some specific differences in assessment scales we used in data collection. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few studies conducted in the South-East Asian region exploring deeply into the factors associated with QOL among older people living in their own homes.…”

“…As the availability of human and social resources positively influences the health of the elderly population,53 an emphasis on encouraging an increase in their social interactions is warranted. Engaging in hobbies4 and joining recreational clubs4 21 are some suggestions to improve the QOL. According to our results, chronic arthritis and disabling stroke negatively influence the environmental domain of the QOL of older people, while the environmental domain includes important aspects of mobility, safety and security.…”