Tools for measurement of health status and quality of life of elderly people

Improvement in health policies has led to changing diseases pattern and increasing rapidly population of elderly people in developing countries such as Iran. Therefore, improvement of quality of life and health status of elderly people demands increased attention. This study was conducted to identify tools that are commonly used to measure health status and quality of life in elderly people.

A systematic review was conducted in the websites of Medline, World Health Organization and other sources based on keywords of quality of life and health status of elderly people without limitation for the publishing year. Authors of these papers had reported the most common techniques used for measurement of health status and quality of life in the elderly.

5186 articles were obtained based on search keywords. 91 articles were related to tools that measure health status and quality of life of elderly people. Most commonly used techniques were Short Form 36(49%), Short Form 12(7%), Nottingham Health Profile (6%), Sickness Impact Profile (4%), and Health Status Questionnaire 12(4%).

Measurement of health status and quality of life in the elderly requires tools specifically designed to address issues in that age group.