Association between socio-demographic and economic characteristics, community care and quality of life of elderly In Oyo State, South West, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Quality of life among elderly is an important area of concern that reflects the health status of this vulnerable population, as it might be influenced by socio-demographic and economic, physical, psychological, social and environmental changes that occur with aging.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the association between socio-demographics and economic, community care and quality of life among elderly in Oyo State, Nigeria.

Methods: Multistage sampling technique was employed to select 1000 elderly. Data on socio-economic and demographic, quality of life and community care were obtained using a semi-structured questionnaire, World Health Organization Quality of Life BREF and Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment tool respectively. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentages, means, standard deviation and Chi-Square.

Results: Higher percentage (54.0%) of the respondents had formal education, 21.6% were retirees, majority (82.0%) were between 65-74 years, 69.0% and 31.0% lived in rural and urban areas respectively while higher percentage (65.8%) earned below ₦10,000 per month. Result on the domains on quality of life revealed that physical health, psychological, social relationship and environmental domain of the respondents were (44.7±8.9, 48.0±7.5, 48.6±9.8 and 44.8±12.3) respectively. Majority (96.0%) had adequate community medical/nutrition care, physical care (90.1%) while little (19.6%) had adequate social care. Factors such as education, occupation, marital status and community care were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05) with quality of life.

Conclusion: The respondents' mean score in each of the quality of life domains were less than average representing an unacceptably low quality of life.