Quality of life in diabetic elderlies

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Diabetes in the elderly is mostly associated with increased risk of development and worsening of geriatricsyndromes. In addition, it has a significant impact on various aspects of individuals with these syndromes. Therefore, this study aimedto evaluate the quality of life (QOL) in elderly diabetic patients.Methods: This descriptive and analytical study was conducted on 88 elderly diabetic patients (selected from 1400 diabetic patients)with medical records at diabetes centers in Kashan, Iran in 2006. The study tools were demographic questionnaire and Older People’sQuality of Life Questionnaire (41-item version), applied to evaluate the general (13-52 scores), specific (27-108 scores) and total (40-160 scores) aspects of QOL. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using univariate and multivariate logistic regressionmodels.Results: In total, 65.9% of the patients were female and 34.1% were male. In terms of the aspects of QOL (i.e., general, specific andtotal), 68.2%, 77.3% and 53.4% of the elderly patients had weak scores, respectively.Conclusion: Given the low QOL in the majority of elderly diabetic patients, our results indicated that these type of patients need specialhealthcare. In other words, this study reaffirmed the role of caring for the health of elderly diabetic patients.