Life style and health profile assessment of elderly in Baghdad city

Abstract

Background: The vast majority of older people live in environments that have not been designed with their needs and capacities in mind. WHO implied that the assessment of health and healthcare should not only include traditional measures of morbidity and mortality, but should also include a broader assessment of the Quality of lifeObjective: To throw light on the quality of life of the elderly living in Baghdad to help upgrade the standards of health care services afforded to them.Methods: This cross sectional study (with an analytic element) was conducted in Baghdad city during the period from January to September 2013. A total of 210 elderly people (105 men and 105 women) age 60 years and above was enrolled in this study. A structured questionnaire was developed mainly by the researchers and part of it was borrowed from other sourcesResults: The nutritional status was good in 47.1%, while 41.9% have moderate nutritional risk and 11% have high nutritional risk,70% were smokers or ex- smokers, 61.4% of the sample was not performing exercises. Out of the total sample; 182 stated that they have chronic diseases, cardiovascular diseases were the most prevalent (65.7%) followed by hypertension(61.4%), osteoarthritis (53.3%), diabetes mellitus(51%), urine incontinence (33.8%), cataract and other chronic eye diseases (31.0%),chronic lung diseases(27.1%), prostatic diseases(5.2%), chronic renal failure(3.3%),andhearingloss(1.9%) There was only one case of cancer and one case of Parkinsonism. Conclusion: It can be concluded from this study that most of the elderly are living sedentary life, with no exercises, the prevalence of chronic diseases is high, nutritional risk is also high among them, about two third of them are dissatisfied with their life.