SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC PREDICTORS OF GENERAL HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE ELDERLY IN COMMUNITY OR NURSING HOME DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, older people are the most vulnerable to experience physical and psychological problems, which in turn will affect their quality of life (QoL).  The sociodemographic backgrounds of elderly dwelling in the community and their counterparts in nursing homes may differ.  This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the sociodemographic predictive factors of the perceived general health and QoL among 67 elderly in the community and 34 elderly in nursing homes. Data on sociodemographic and QoL (measured by the WHOQOL-BREF instrument) were collected during January–July 2021 and analyzed using the multivariate regression model. The study found that among the community-dwelling elderly, those who lived with a paid assistant indicated a poor to average perceived QoL, while older age was a predictive factor for an increased in the QoL scores especially the physical health, psychological and environment domains. On the contrary, higher education level predicted higher physical health scores, and spiritual belief was a positive predictor in each QoL domain. As to older respondents in nursing homes, women tended to have a better perceived QoL, those with higher level of spiritual belief was likely to perceive a good general health, whereas those who had higher education level was likely to have a lower social domain scores.  Conversely, elderly in the nursing home whose marital status was widowed or separated had the lowest scores in both physical health and psychological domains, while those who never communicated with family had the lowest social and environment scores.