Factors associated with quality of life among elderly in urban Vietnam

Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) among the elderly is a big problem in Vietnam due to a growing proportion of the elderly in Vietnam while many conditions, including policies, social facilities, culture and other factors are not ready to support for QoL among elderly. This cross-sectional study was conducted to explore QoL and factors associated with QoL among the elderly in Trung Tu ward, Ha Noi, Viet Nam. The findings showed that the four domains of QoL the among elderly fluctuated around 50. Mean scores of social and psychological QoL were higher than those in the physical and environmental domains. A statistically significant difference in mean scores of QoL by socio-demographics was re-corded (age profile, educational attainment, and occupation). All four domains of QoL were positively correlated with each other. Furthermore, age, psychological, social and environmental domains col-lectively contributed to 47.59% of the physical domain; while the physical, social, and environmental domains accounted for 56.13% of the psychological domain. We also found that occupation (work-er), as well as physical, psychological, and environmental metrics, accounted for 34.19% of the so-cial domain. Moreover, physical, psychological, social domains and occupation (home-wife) collec-tively accounted for 45.92% of the transformation of environmental domain. Our study suggests that it is essential to evaluate overall QoL to have a comprehensive view of its effects in the long run.