Quality of life for elderly residents in nursing home

Introduction and purpose: The dramatic increase in average life expectancy resulted in increasing number of old population. The importance of improving quality of life in elderly has been highlighted recently. Therefore, the first step to promote quality of life in elderly is to acquire comprehensive information on this field. The aim of this study was to assess quality of life for elderly residents in nursing home. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 141 elderly residents of Kahrizak nursing home selected using census sampling method. Quality of life was measured using the SF36 questionnaire which assesses different dimensions of quality of life. The possible range of score for SF36 questionnaire was from 0 to 100 and the higher scores indicate higher quality of life. Findings: Results of this study showed that mean age of participants was 72.72 (SD=8.64) years old and about 52% of them were men. The mean score for quality of life was 50.36 (SD=11.3) and mens quality of life was significantly (P less-than 0.001) higher than women. Our findings showed that widows and illiterate elderly had lower score of quality of life compared to their counterparts. Conclusion: Quality of life for elderly participated in this study was moderate and women reported lower quality of life compared to men. Therefore, factors affecting quality of life of older people especially, older women should be considered more carefully.