A research on the life quality of the olds living at home

This research is dedicated to analyze the quality of elderly people living at home. In this research, scanning model is used to carry out the study. 250 elderly people, living in Zeytinburnu and Küçükçekmece that are in İstanbul in Turkey, who are registered to village clinics numbered 1 called Söğütlüçeşme and Merkezefendi forms the sampling frame. In addition to those, 130 elderly people registered to public hospital administered to the province called Hakkari in Turkey are used in the sampling. 380 elderly people are included in the research in complete. The evaluation is put through with ?t? test in order to be able to conclude either whether the comparison of the life quality of elderly people living at home in İstanbul and Hakkari is statistically meaningful or not. In particular, variables seen in the comparison are age, education, monthly income of the old persons and yearly income of the family. It is also necessary to point out that the comparison is evaluated by the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).Firstly, it will be useful to draw attention to the rates standing out in the research. Firstly, 52.4% of the elderly people in the sample are male and 47.6 % are female. Also, those who are between the age of 65-71 are 56.3% and those who are between the age of 72- 84 are 30.3%. In addition, 48.7% of the elderly people in the sampling are illiterate and the married couples are 55.3% of the elderly people taken into the research. Moreover, those whose monthly income of the family is equal to or less than 650 TL consists of 38.9%. Furthermore, the elderly people have difficult in doing some daily activities that vary certainly. 55.0% have difficult in catering, though, 49.5% have no difficulty in dressing. 10.3% sometimes have difficulty in showering. Also, 17.4% have difficulty in preparing food and 15.5 sometimes encounter difficulties in doing housework. It is seen in the study that 31.1% have no control of money management such as paying bills. Besides, those who accept that they have health problems form 33.1%. Those who can not benefit from health services sufficiently form 50.8% of the elderly people taken into account in the study.On considering the evaluation of life quality of elderly people on economic conditions, it is concluded that there is meaningful difference between those living in İstanbul and those living in Hakkari in terms of having economic independency (t= 3.80, p<0.01), having sufficient income (t= 2.15, p<0.05) and being divested of their income of the elderly people (t= 3.70, p<0.01). In addition, it is concluded that the evaluation of psychological health of the elderly people is related to the elderly people?s their age in terms of having self- confidence (F=4.11, p<0.05) and being relaxed and happy (F=6.30, p<0.01). When the quality of life is regarded, including the environment and the residence aspects, in terms of being satisfied with the environment that they live in (F=6.06, p<0.01), there has been concluded a meaningful difference not only at the age of 71, but also at age of younger ages as well as at the age of 85 and at the elder ages and between the ages 72 and 84. In addition to these, It is concluded by this study that there is a meaningful difference between those who are illiterate and those who graduated from secondary high and from the senior schools in terms of taking part in social activities (F=3.37, p<0.05).Furthermore, another meaningful difference is seen in that being able to reach sufficient food supplement is precisely related to monthly income of the elderly people (F=5.77, p<0.01). This is concluded between those whose monthly income is equal to and or less than 500 TL and those whose monthly income is between 501 and 750 TL. There is statistically meaning difference n the evaluation of life quality of elderly people in terms of having enough income in order to be able to buy proper food (F=6.84, p<0.01) when compared to monthly income of the family of the elderly people. This meaningful difference exists among both in those whose monthly income of the family is equal to and or less than 650 TL and in those whose monthly income of the family is between 651 and 1350 TL as well as in those whose monthly income of the family is more than 1351 TLKey Words: Elderly people, Living at home, Quality of life, Life quality in senescence