ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN OLDER PEOPLE

The demographic profile of the world's population is changing towards old age. Living longer offers both significant opportunities and challenges. Elderly people who fulfilled many expectations and demands early in life have significant opportunities to develop and contribute to their personality and sociability. However, elderly people also face significant age-related challenges associated with independence, social interactions, health-care, and community involvement activities. Given the exponential growth of the elderly population, and the age-related opportunities and difficulties, quality of life (QOL) becomes a key endpoint in defining the life experiences of older people. Therefore, the scales used in assessing QOL of older people should be valid and reliable. The high prevalence of chronic diseases in elderly people, and some conditions restricted to later life such as chronic heart failure and dementia further emphasize the importance of appropriate assessment of health-related QOL in older individuals. In this review, the factors associated with QOL in elderly people, the perception of health-related QOL of older individuals, the scales used in assessing older people and their limitations are discussed in view of the current literature.