Quality of Life, health and socio-demographics in older people in Madrid, Spain

MARTINEZ-MARTIN, P.; FORJAZ, M.J.; FRADES PAYO, B.; GARCÍA IZAGUIRRE, C.; FERNANDEZ-MAYORALAS, G.; ROJO-PEREZ, F.; PRIETO FLORES, M.E.; RODRÍGUEZ RODRÍGUEZ, V.; LEON SALAS, B.

Congreso; 8th Global Conference on Ageing; 2006

The goal of this communication is to highlight the differences on quality of life (QoL) oncommunity-dwelling people aged 65 years and over. A representative sample of 499 people living in the province of Madrid, Spain, was interviewed. The following measures were applied: Depression subscale of the HADS; the Barthel index (disability), a comorbidity index adapted from the CIRS-G, and the EuroQoL (health-related QoL (HRQoL)). In addition, QoL was assessed through an individualized instrument, the SEIQoL-DW, which allows for the respondent to identify the 5 most important QoL dimensions (cues) and to rate their satisfaction level and importance.Data were analysed by gender (40.88% men) and age groups (65-74 years: 49.5%; 74-84 years: 35.9%; 85+ years: 14.6%). There were significantly more women in the older group than men (p = 0.015). The most self-identified QoL cues were health (19.3%), family network (16.3%), finances (15.2%), social network (11.4%), and hobbies (7.5%). Women reported a higher comorbidity index (p = 0.001) and lower HRQoL (p = 0.004) than men. The older group reported a higher depression score, more disability, lower health-related QoL and higher comorbidity index (Kruskal-Wallis, p < 0.001 for all comparisons) than the younger groups. No significant differences were found for the SEIQoL index by gender nor age. In conclusion, the HRQoL, disability and comorbidity is different by the most important epidemiological factors, age and gender, in older people. This draws ourattention to the importance gender and age differences in health policy design.