Quality of life in diabetic elderlies

Background and Purpose: Diabetes in the elderly is mostly associated with increased risk of development and worsening of geriatric syndromes. In addition, it has a significant impact on various aspects of individuals with these syndromes. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) in elderly diabetic patients. Methods: This descriptive and analytical study was conducted on 88 elderly diabetic patients (selected from 1400 diabetic patients) with medical records at diabetes centers in Kashan, Iran in 2006. The study tools were demographic questionnaire and Older People’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (41-item version), applied to evaluate the general (13-52 scores), specific (27-108 scores) and total (40- 160 scores) aspects of QOL. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. Results: In total, 65.9% of the patients were female and 34.1% were male. In terms of the aspects of QOL (i.e., general, specific and total), 68.2%, 77.3% and 53.4% of the elderly patients had weak scores, respectively. Conclusion: Given the low QOL in the majority of elderly diabetic patients, our results indicated that these type of patients need special healthcare. In other words, this study reaffirmed the role of caring for the health of elderly diabetic patients.