Assessment of the Quality of Life of People over 60 Years of Age Living in a Home Environment

Abstract Book of the 3rd Global Conference on Aging and Gerontology

Year: 2025

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Assessment of the Quality of Life of People over 60 Years of Age Living in a Home Environment

Bożena Kowalczyk, Kinga Kowalewska, Bożena Zawadzka

ABSTRACT:

Global aging represents a significant public health concern from medical, social, and economic perspectives. The evaluation of quality of life should be an essential component of the diagnostic process in patient care, as findings in this field can contribute to the prevention of numerous diseases.
The aim: The objective of this study was to assess the quality of life, as measured by the WHOQOL-Age questionnaire, among individuals over 60 years of age residing in a home setting, in relation to specific sociodemographic and medical factors.
Material and methods: The study was conducted with 540 individuals aged 60–89 years living in a home environment in Poland. The Polish version of the standardised WHOQOL-Age questionnaire was used to evaluate quality of life. In all tests, the significance level was set at 0.05.
Results: Among the sociodemographic factors analyzed, those that significantly influenced the overall quality-of-life index, as well as the satisfaction subscale and the expectations-fulfillment subscale, were: age, marital status, and family situation. Concerning medical factors, the following were found to have a significant impact on these indices and subscales: IADL, the “up & go” test, occurrence of falls within the past 12 months, fear of falling, presence of pain, and hospitalisation during the 12 months preceding the study.
When comparing the mean index values across specific demographic variable categories, the profile of an individual with the lowest quality of life is that of a woman who is single, aged 75–89 years, residing alone in a rural area, and possessing only primary education.

Keywords: People Aged 60+, Whoqol-Age Questionnaire, Quality of Life