QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG KAHRIZAK CHARITY INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY PEOPLE

The population of most countries in the word has been growing older during the last 30 years. This trend is important because it leads to a predictable increasing burden of diseases, political, social and economic challenges. The objective of this study was to assess health related quality of life and relating factors in institutionalized elderlies living in “Kahrizak Charity Institution for elder people, in Tehran, Iran”. In this cross sectional research 202 persons aged 65 years and above who were residing in the institution for at least 6 months and able to answer our questions were studied. We used the Iranian version of the SF-36 questionnaire to measure quality of life. Data were collected by face to face interviews. For comparing quality of life between different groups we used non-parametric tests. The mean age of participants was 76.8 (SD=±7.6) years; and 58.5% were female.The results showed significant relation between the participants’quality of life scores and variables such as gender, educational level, working in the institution’s workshop, receiving pension, having different types of fractures, deformities, and arthrosis. The study findings indicated that quality of in this group of elderly people was poor and it needs to be improved.