Vojnosanitetski pregled 2016 Volume 73, Issue 1, Pages: 42-46
https://doi.org/10.2298/VSP131205126C
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Quality of life of elderly people living in a retirement home
Čanković Sonja 
(Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad + Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad)
Nikolić-Ač Eržebet (Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad + Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad)
Mijatović-Jovanović Vesna (Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad + Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad)
Kvrgić Svetlana (Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad + Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad)
Harhaji Sanja (Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad + Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad)
Radić Ivana (Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad + Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad)
Background/Aim. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified four broad
domains as being universally relevant to the quality of life, namely
physical, and psychological health, social relationships, and environment.
The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between sociodemographic
characteristics and quality of life of old people. Methods. The World Health
Organization Quality of Life BREF questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) was used to
assess quality of life on a random sample of 200 people aged 60 years and
over who lived in the Retirement Home in Novi Sad. Items within the
questionnaire were organized into four domains: physical, psychological,
social relationships and environment. Results. The majority of the
participants were women (69.8%). The mean age was 79.2 years (SD = 6.6
years). Most of them were widowed (73.4%). More than two thirds of
participants (68.8%) reported that they were ill at that moment and almost
half of them (48.8%) had cardiovascular, 18.5% musculoskeletal, 9.6%
endocrine and 5.9% neurological disease. In the social relations domain
scores were lower in males (t = 2.4; p = 0.017). Scores of other domains did
not differ significantly with regard to the age, educational level and the
marital status of the participants. Participants who reported the presence of
a disease had significantly lower mean scores of physical, psychological and
environment domain. Conclusion. The presence of disease is a relevant factor
for quality of life, whereas age, education and marital status do not reflect
on physical health, psychological and environmental domain of quality of
life.
Keywords: aged, homes for the aged, quality of life, questionnaires, serbia