Perception of Quality of Life among Diabetics and Hypertensive Elderly People

A research project was conducted with the objective to know the perception of quality of life (QoL) of elderly with diabetes and hypertension. Purposive random technique was adopted for the present study. A sample of 1200 elderly who were diabetic and hypertensive were identified from 20 areas in Bangalore city. The sample of 1200 further divided into 600 each of men and women of which 300 each were from the age group of 65-70 years and 71-76 years. The QoL was assessed through the standardised scale WHO-QOL-100 field version. The quantitative analysis of the data was made by calculating frequencies, percentage, mean scores and SD. Chi-Square , 't' test and 'Z' test were applied to see the significance of differences in the mean scores of men and women and the two age groups classified for the study. The finding revealed that old age people with diabetes and hypertension have not shown a low perception of quality of life as expected. Most of them showed a moderate level of QOL. Women are more likely to be high or moderate on QOL while men tend to be moderate or low. More number of younger men among the aged were found to have low QOL while more number of older men was found to have moderate QOL. Among women, high QOL was noticed in the younger group more often and moderate QOL among older women.