Comparative study: Assess the quality of life of elderly people residing at rural and urban areas of Dhaboi taluka, Vadodara, Gujarat

Concerning the demographic characteristics, the Quality of life for elderly people is pleasant quite significant by an elderly civilization. There are several suggestions in relation to quality of life in elderly populations which are quite different from the overall population. In India, there is very limited consciousness towards the special requirements of elderly people which occurs due to non-awareness towards the basics of elderly care (physical, psychological, socio-economical and spiritual support). The present study mainly aims towards three-fold objectives that include i) assessing Quality of life of elderly residing at rural and urban areas, ii) compare the quality of life of elderly population to the general population residing at rural and urban areas and iii) to create an association about quality of life of ageing people residing at rural and urban areas with their corresponding demographic variable. A community based quantitative method which is a non- experimental comparative survey research design, was adopted among 300 elderly selected from rural (n= 150) and urban (n= 150) areas of Vadodara by using non-probability convenient sampling technique. The WHO- modified quality of life scale was used and a statistical software SPSS version 23.0 was used for analysis. The results indicated that the overall mean score of rural QOL was (68.02 ± 12.56) significantly higher as compared to urban QOL (51.62 ± 6.82) [Table 1]. The rural QOL was considered with the number of children (χ2 = 11.402) and status of living (χ2 = 11.231) with whereas in urban QOL it was considered with the age (χ2 = 18.491), occupation (χ2 = 16.714) and income (χ2 = 9.535) was found to be significant at 0.05 level [Table 2]. The study provides an outlook that strategies and agendas associated to elderly should be threw without ignoring the requirements of elderly people. Further training of volunteer workers, health care specialists, and family members on the care of senior residents should be applied. It is to be noted that Quality of life of elderly can be improved with the support of family members.