QUALITY of LIFE and FREQUENCY of CHRONIC DISEASE In the Elderly WHO LIVE In URBAN Areas, AN EXAMPLE of Turkey

The purpose of this research is examing the frequency of chronic disease and quality of life who over age 50 and who apply the Family Health Centers because of health problems in the town of Bandırma in the province of Balıkesir.

This research was conducted with 10 (ten) Family Health Centers in the town of Bandırma in 2009. In these centers a questionnaire was applied which about people over age 50 who admit because of health problems. WHOQOL-BREF quality of life scala which developed by World Health Organisation to evaluate the quality of life was applied. The questionnaires were administered by students previously trained in the nursing department.

In this study 367 people aged 50 and older were interviewed,the mean age was 62,2±8,7.  63.2% of 367 people female,76.0% married and 52.8% have primary school education. 22.3% are smokers.The average of Body Mass Index is 27.8±4.7. 22.7% have no chronical disease , 45.2%  have hypertension , 8.4% have stomach ulcer or gastritis, 7.9% have rheumatic disease, 7.6% have diabetes mellitus.

 

Quality of life was evaluated over 20 scores were significantly lower in women not only the physical area (p <0.05) differences were detected between the other areas (p> 0.05), age, a weak negative correlation between the physical and social space by the educational status weak positive correlation was detected in all areas (p <0.05). the quality of life scores in patients with chronic disease in all areas were statistically significantly lower (p <0.05).

In this research 77% of 367 people have one chronic disease and the most common was hypertension.With chronic disease,the quality of life scores were generally lower.Chronic disease are more common in older age.And chronic diseases adversely affect quality of life.