Quality of life of elderly during the covid-19 pandemic

Objective (s): 

This study aimed to assess quality of life of elderly living during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The was a descriptive study. A sample of 430 elderly people aged 60 years and above, members of the ‘Neighborhood Club’ in 22 districts of Tehran, Iran participated in the study The data was collected during June 2019 to July 2020. Quality of life was measured by the Persian version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life- Old (WHOQOL-OLD) questionnaire. Higher score indicates a lower quality of life. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were performed to analyze the data.

Based on the results of the research, information about 430 elderly people has been reported, which had a relatively uniform distribution in 22 districts of Tehran. The mean age of elderly was 67.59±6.48 years, 60.5% were women, 68.8% were married, and 35.6% had secondary education, 67.9% had history of covid-19, and 93.3% of their first degree family members had a history of the disease. The total score of quality of life of the elderly was 75.84±12.47 based on the WHOQOL-Old questionnaire. The linear regression model showed that poor health (P=0.023), semi-independent dependence (P=0.003) and exposure to physical (P<0.001) and mental abuse (P<0.001) were among factors that reduced the quality of life. Overall demographic factors explained 42.9% of variance in quality of life score.

The results showed that demographic variables played important role in shaping quality of life among elderly during the Covid-19 pandemic.