A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON OF HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE BETWEEN TAIWANESE AND HONDURAN ELDERLY PEOPLE

• Main Authors: Roberto Antonio Contreras Martinez, 羅伯特
• Other Authors: Richard Chien
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/42600898505442197556

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 公共衛生研究所 === 93 === ABSTRACT Background: Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of elderly people has become an important development issue that requires urgent action. HRQoL factors such as; health, and physical, psychological, social and environmental factors of ageing are inextricably linked to the development process. In both, developed and developing world, the overall demand for care and attention for the elderly will be a function of the prevalence of illness and disability, and of the amount of time lived healthy at older ages. Thus, even if there are compensatory changes and improvements, the well-being of the elderly will remain compromised. The ultimate goal of HRQoL study and its subsequent application to people’s lives is to enable people to live quality lives – lives that are both meaningful and enjoyed. Methods: Using randomized selected method, we selected specifically natives from two cities and have been medically followed-up for one year from the health care facilities from outpatient services from Pu Li Christian Hospital in Taiwan and Siguatepeque Public Health Care Center in Honduras. From January 15 to 22 of January, 2005, using the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, we interviewed the qualified subjects including men and women, 60 years or older. Information was collected for the different domains in the survey, such as quality of life and health, and physical, psychological, social and environmental factors. The standard methods to score the WHOQOL-BREF were used to measure the quality of life of the elderly objectively. Results: HRQoL of elderly people is such an important issue world-wide, this study has shown some perspectives for future studies. Of a total of 340 participants, 274 elderly perceived their Quality of Life neither poor nor good for a 42% and good/very good for 45% with a mean that accounts for 3.36, even though their satisfaction with health from neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and lower accounting for 63%, with a mean of 3.06, and all of the continuous variables kept in the standards means. The performed Chi-square tests showed several correlations, (p < 0.05), between country and marital status (χ2 = 18.68), country and illness (χ2 = 33.41), gender and education (χ2 = 4.50), gender and marital status (χ2 = 18.73), and education and marital status (χ2 = 13.69), therefore, inferential statistics using two-way ANOVA were used and results showed two variables had an impact on HRQoL; country (p = 0.02) and illness (p = 0.02) independently had a statistical significance. Independent Sample T-Tests were performed with country and illness and they showed correlations between country and physical health (p = 0.00), psychological domain (p = 0.00), and environment (p = 0.00). Also were found correlations between illness and the respective variables, as follows, physical (p = 0.00), psychological (p = 0.00), social (p = 0.00) and environmental (p = 0.03); all of them had a statistical significance.