Quality of Life Among Nursing Home Residents Compared With the Elderly at Home

Background: On the 21st century, due to advances in treatment and medical care, significant increases in life expectancy and decrease of birth rate, most countries including Iran have faced with the population aging problem. Objectives: Due to the increasing elderly population phenomenon and its physical and social impacts on seniorsʹ health, further research is necessary to improve the quality of life (QOL) for elderly. In this regard, the aim of the present study was to compare the QOL between two groups of elderly who were residents of nursing homes as well as those who live with their families. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, in which 110 home-resident elderly people and 110 residents of three nursing homes in Shiraz, Iran, were selected by convenient sampling. In this study, two questionnaires were used. Demographic information of participant was recorded by the first questionnaire and their QOLs were assessed by SF-36 QOL questionnaire, which had been standardized in Iran (its validity and reliability had been confirmed for the Iranian population) by the second questionnaire. SPSS 15 was used and P < 0.05 was considered as a significance level for data analysis. Data were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t-test, chi-squared and correlation test. Results: The mean scores of the elderly QOL in all the scales for elderlies living with families were significantly higher than those of the nursing home residents. Furthermore, with the increase in the level of education, the scores of QOL in all the scales were higher. Furthermore, in all the eight scales, the highest QOL belonged to single or widowed elderlies and the lowest to divorced or spouse-died ones. Conclusions: This study suggested that keeping elderly at home rather than nursing homes could be helpful to increase the QOL by providing chances for marriage, education and more social activities.