Life quality and daily life activities of elderly people in rural areas, Eskişehir (Turkey)

Certain difficulties in daily life activities appear and quality of life (QoL) begins to deteriorate with old age. This study aimed at determining QoL and activities of daily living (ADL) of elderly people in rural areas of Eskişehir, and at identifying applicable factors in this regard. Cross-sectional study managed to reach 1301 (81.3%) of elderly people. Face-to-face interviews and the WHOQOL-BREF QoL scale and questionnaire were applied to evaluate daily life activities, as well as instrumental activities all of which contained sociodemographic features. WHOQOL-BREF life quality scale comprised of four domains with grades between 0 and 20. Those who received help from others in the execution of these activities were labelled as "dependent", those who received partial aid during the execution of these activities were labelled as "partially dependent", and those who did not receive any help in their daily activities were labelled as "independent" individuals. Average age of 1301 people contacted was 71.52+/-5.18 (ranging 65-91 years); 675 of them were women (51.9%), 626 were men (48.1%). Three hundred and eighty-seven of these elderly people (29.7%) had no medically diagnosed illnesses, whereas 18 of them (1.4%) were bedridden. With older age, with the exception of social and environmental areas, life quality got even worse in women, widows, illiterates, bedridden and those with medically diagnosed diseases. As women were more dependent on issues such as housework, shopping, traveling, transporting and bathing, men were more dependent on areas such as meal preparation. No distinction between men and women were identified in areas such as dressing, toilet use, urine and bowel continence and eating. As a conclusion, in cases where medically diagnosed diseases were present, quality of life in women that were dependent somehow in daily activities was worse. It was concluded that medicosocial services for the elderly would be prioritized and studies on chronic diseases would be re-evaluated.