Violence and Quality of life in the Elder women

Background: Quality of life (QOL) is a major public health concern in the growing elderly population. Elderly misconduct is a kind of violence that may endanger the health and quality of life of an elderly. Studies have shown that women experience more misconduct. Purpose in this study is to investigate the correlation of violence and quality of life of elderly women in Shiraz. Method: Samples were selected through multistage random cluster sampling. QOL and violence were examined using the elderly quality of life (LEIPAD) and violence questionnaire, respectively. Generally, LEIPAD consists of 31 items that measure seven domains: cognitive functioning, depression/anxiety, life satisfaction, physical function, self-care, social functioning, and sexual functioning. Violence questionnaire, consisting of six domains included neglect, emotional abuse, financial abuse, physical abuse, personal rights and sexuality. The Cronbach’s alpha was 94% and 0.87% for LIPAD and violence questionnaire respectively. A path analysis was performed in SPSS and AMOS at a significance level of 0.05 Results: The mean age of 216 elderly women was 63.7±5.9 years. Based on the findings, 107 (54.9%) elderly people had low-to-moderate QOL, and 62 (31.2%) had experienced moderate levels of violence. QOL and violence were found to be inversely associated (β= -0.29; p=0.027). According to the component analysis, depression (β, 0.736; P<0.010) and cognitive functioning (β, 0.593; P<0.011) had the most significant associations with the total score of QOL, while the components of physical abuse (β, 0.910; P=0.005), emotional abuse (β= 0.821; P=0.006), and personal rights (β, 0.797; P=0.008) had the most significant correlations with the total score of violence Conclusion: In our study, violence and QOL had an inverse association. Elder women were suffered from emotional, physical and personal right abuse more. Violence had correlation with higher depression and lower cognitive functioning among elder women. Therefore integration of QOL improvement and violence interventions is recommended for elder women at healthcare centers

Violence and Quality of life in the Elder women Keywords:

Violence , Quality of Life , Elderly , women , path analysis