Korean J Community Nutr.  2012 Dec;17(6):772-781. 10.5720/kjcn.2012.17.6.772.

Health-Related Factors Influencing the Quality of Life of Rural Elderly Subjects: Activities of Daily Living, Cognitive Functions, Prevalence of Chronic Diseases and Nutritional Assessment

• Lee MS

• KMID: 2267468
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2012.17.6.772

Abstract

In order to supply the reference data to define the quality of life of the rural agricultural elderly population in the simplified steps, the data were collected by personal visits to 232 elder people over 65 (89 males and 143 females) in Sunchang area. The survey was conducted with written questionnaires concerning the quality of life, health-related habits, basic physical functions and cognitive behavior. The prevalence of the degenerative diseases were assessed by anthropometric and biochemical determinations. The averaged overall quality of life represented by EQ-5D index with Nam's model was calculated to be 0.865 +/- 0.1509, and the percentages of people below the average were 38% (low QOL group) and 62% (high QOL group) were found to be the above the average. Generally, the subjects with male gender, higher educational background, higher self-rated health status, higher social activities were belonged to the high QOL group. The high QOL group had higher scores of daily living activities KADL and IADL, and lower risks in cognitive functions K-MMSE and depression scale GDS. There was no statistically significant correlation between biochemical indexes of blood and cognitive function and EQ-5D scores when the results were adjusted for age and gender. There were significant differences in nutritional assessment determined by the MNA between the high and low QOL groups. The low QOL group showed inferior nutritional status. The rapidly measurable factors of the quality of life of rural elderly were turned out to be physical activity scores and the simplified nutritional status measurement.

Keyword

quality of life; EQ-5D index; ADL; MNA; elderly

MeSH Terms

Activities of Daily Living
Aged
Chronic Disease
Depression
Humans
Male
Motor Activity
Nutrition Assessment
Nutritional Status
Prevalence
Quality of Life
Surveys and Questionnaires

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