Background: Multidimensional components of quality of life such as well-being, satisfaction, and lifestyle together ensure an improvement in longer life expectancy. Therefore, it is important to emphasize the assessment of the quality of life (QoL) of the elderly population and its association with various background characteristics.
Methodology: A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out from April to September 2017 among 270 consenting elderly people residing in urban slums under the field practice area of a medical college, using a well-structured, globally validated World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) tool. The scores were computed for the different domains of WHO QoL, and the mean score of these domains was compared among the different socio-economic and demographic factors.
Results: The majority (67.41%) of the sampled population belonged to the 60- to 69-year-old age group; females (63.70%) outnumbered males. The total QoL score was 47.52 ± 15.06 showing that the average population had a fair QoL. The environmental domain had a poor QoL (43.15) score, and the rest of the domains showed a fair QoL. Higher age groups, persons other than self-employed, and the upper class were seen to have significantly lower QoL scores in all four domains. Females had a lower QoL score in the physical as well as social domains as compared to males.
Conclusion: Aging is associated with a decrease in social and economic participation. In areas of compromised living conditions, like slums, the environmental domain adds to the decrease in quality along with the other domains. Ageing, employment status, socio-economic class, and the female gender had significantly lower QoL scores in all four domains.
Keywords: aging; elderly; quality of life; urban slum; who-bref.
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