Quality of Life of the Elderly Residents

Abstract

Problem statement: A preliminary investigation of the Orem self-care training effects on the Quality Of Life (QOL) of the health care centers’ elderly residents in the city of Masjed Solaiman, Iran. Approach: The Orem self-care training was administered to 349 elderly free of chronic disorders (aged 65 and older). The eligible participants were selected from 11 health centers. The training was administered by research assistants. The cumulative training time was four months. The training consisted of six 40 min sessions. The Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to compare QOL scores before and after the training using a paired t-test. Results: The overall health survey scores improved significantly after the training (p<0.001, mean increase from 49.2-59.0). The physical role score increased from 48.7-57.4; physical functioning from 55.3-66.3; mental health from 52.1-62.2; social functioning from 57.4-68.5; body pain tolerance from 47.4-53.3; vitality from 47.0-57.6 and emotional role from 47.2-61.9. Conclusion: The Orem self-care training can improve the QOL scores in the elderly population. Additional studies including a random selected subjects and paired controls to are required to validate our preliminary findings. A significant statistical bias could have been introduced by the lack of controls and accounting for other variables such as sex and literacy.