Assessment of Quality of Life among Rural and Urban Elderly Population of Wardha District, Maharashtra, India

Abstract All aspects of health status: life style, satisfaction, mental state or well-being together reflect the multidimensional nature of Quality of Life (QOL) in an individual. India has acquired the label of “an aging nation” with 7.7 percent of its population being more than 60 years old. Changes in population structure will have several implications for health, economic security, family life and well being of people. The present study was carried out with two-fold objectives to assess the difference of quality of life between rural and urban elderly population and to find out the association between the socio-demographic profile and quality of life of elderly population. The community based cross sectional study was conducted on 800 elderly subjects selected from urban (n= 400) and rural (n= 400) using multistage simple random technique. Interviews were conducted using pre-tested questionnaire by trained interviewers to collect data. The WHO-QOL BREF was used to assess the quality of life. The study showed that the elders living in the urban community reported significant lower level of quality of life in the domains of physical 51.2±3.6 and psychological 51.3±2.5 than the rural elderly populations. The rural elderly population reported significant lower level of quality of life in the domain of social relation 55.9±2.7 and environmental 57.1±3.2 than urban population. The difference between the quality of life in rural and urban elderly population is due to the difference in the socio-demographic factors, social resource, lifestyle behaviors and income adequacy.