Quality of life (QOL) among older persons in an urban and rural area of Bangalore, South India

Abstract

Introduction: The increasing ageing population of India has unique challenges due to changing social structure, health issues and inaccessible healthcare facilities. These challenges can adversely affect the quality of life (QOL) of older persons. Hence, this study was undertaken with the objective of assessing the QOL among older persons in an urban and rural area of Bangalore. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study was done among 977 older persons 60 years and above. Census enumeration blocks in urban areas and villages in rural areas were randomly selected and all older persons meeting the inclusion criteria were administered the WHOQOL-Bref questionnaire. Results: Mean QOL scores (SD) in the physical, psychological, social relationship and environmental domains were 50.5 (5.5), 49.2 (5.5), 49.4 (6.5) and 49.3 (5.1) in rural areas and 57.4 (8.9), 58.6 (8.8), 64.6 (10.8) and 60.0 (9.4) in urban areas, respectively. Compared to urban, rural older persons uniformly have lower QOL irrespective of sex, education or financial dependence. Conclusion: Inequitable health resource distribution and inadequate social support systems must be addressed to improve the QOL of older persons, especially in rural areas. Primary care providing essential services can bridge this urban–rural divide and improve QOL of older persons.

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“…The elderly who have always been the support to their family until then, start feeling neglected, and start craving for love at this stage of their life leading to deterioration in the physical strength, poor financial condition, and consequently poor quality of life (QoL). 4 As expected, there is a steady rise in the old age dependency ratio (estimated as ratio of population above 60 years old to that of 15-59 years) was observed to be 0.14, and the old age economic dependency ratio was observed as 0.23. 5 This was reiterated by World Health Organization (WHO) that has stated that as people across the world live longer, increased risk/prevalence of chronic illness, and compromised well-being were observed as major challenges in the contemporary world.…”

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

“…Moreover, studies in rural areas report higher scores for social well-being22 26 in addition to the overall QOL. Contrasting results with higher scores for urban and lower scores for rural populations were reported in a recent comparative study conducted in South India 27. The principal reason attributed to the difference was poor health status due to many chronic diseases of the older people in rural areas when compared with urban-based elderly.…”

“…Although the focus of the present study is exclusively on older people in urban settings, such a difference is a likely finding in any setup with unequal distribution of health resources. In addition, living alone was another factor associated significantly with poor QOL in the physical and social relationships domains of the elderly living in rural areas 27. Further, higher QOL scores for the physical health domain3 5 7 22 are reported in studies consisting of older people in the younger (60–69) age groups 3 5 22.…”

“…In addition, living alone was another factor associated significantly with poor QOL in the physical and social relationships domains of the elderly living in rural areas. 27 Further, higher QOL scores for the physical health domain 3 5 7 22 are reported in studies consisting of older people in the younger (60–69) age groups. 3 5 22 It is apparent that the QOL of older people is influenced by various factors, which include sociodemographic variables like age, living environment and living alone.…”

“…Contrasting results with higher scores for urban and lower scores for rural populations were reported in a recent comparative study conducted in South India. 27 The principal reason attributed to the difference was poor health status due to many chronic diseases of the older people in rural areas when compared with urban-based elderly. Although the focus of the present study is exclusively on older people in urban settings, such a difference Open access Open access is a likely finding in any setup with unequal distribution of health resources.…”