Abstract:
Background: Diabetes is one of the four priority non communicable disease whose worldwide prevalence is at an increasing trend and is accompanied by deterioration of quality of life especially that of the elderly population. Several factors contribute to influence quality of life among the elderly; therefore, this study aims to identify the factors that influence quality of life among elderly population of Kathmandu valley, Nepal Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among random sample of 310 elderly diabetic patients visiting diabetic clinic of Kathmandu Diabetes and Thyroid center in Kathmandu valley, Nepal. Translated Nepali version of WHOQOL BREF was administered through face to face interview in order to obtain the data. Association of independent and dependent variables were assessed in bivariate analysis using Independent sample t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation and Multivariate analysis was done using multiple linear regression analysis with estimation of five models. Results: Descriptive analysis showed that more than half of the respondents had moderate quality of life and analytical statistics showed that factors such as age, sex, marital status, income, educational level, lifestyle, diabetes self-management, fasting blood sugar level, complications, convenient hours of operation to be significantly associated with total score of quality of life. Conclusion: Several factors contributed to influence quality of life and in addition to health attention should be paid to other aspects of their life also. Among several factors diabetes self-management is one critical factor among diabetic population which is essential to enhance wellbeing, better glycemic control, fewer complication and hence improve quality of life. Therefore, self-management training with an effort to enhance coping skills should be incorporated and effective strategies should be formulated in order to deal with several aspects of life of elderly population that could influence their quality of life.
