Abstract
Background: Chronic diseases can have a profound impact on the health and quality of life of elder, not to mention the financial burden that is often associated with long-term illness. But specialists in gerontology and the emerging field of anti-aging medicine are quick to point out that while the risk of disease and disability undoubtedly can increase with advancing years, poor health is not an inevitable consequence of aging. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) a lot of the sickness, disability, and even death associated with chronic disease can be avoided through preventive measures older population is expected to be increased in Arab countries including Saudi Arabia in coming decades. On the contrary, Arab countries are not paying attention to this increasing number of elderly people and most of the time; family is responsible for the increased demand of care for the elderly people. Aim of the study: To assess the burden of chronic diseases and their effect on the quality of life of these patients and to make suggestions for improving the health conditions among geriatric patients. Method: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 362 elderly people with age >= 60 years. Quality of life was assessed using the Arabic translation of the WHO Quality of Life-Brief (WHOQOL) questionnaire. Screening of cardiac diseases and depression was done using Framingham and PHQ-2 questionnaires, respectively. Results: Overall, The majority of participants (68.78%) were within the age group 60-<70 years, while the female's gender was (55.52%) while Male was (44.48%) of participants. The majority of participants were married (70.99 %), more than half of the participants (58.01%) were Illiterate. The majority of our participants (63.26%) have been diagnosed with Diabetes mellitus (DM), 22.10% with Hypertension (HTN), 8.56% with Hypercholesterolemia whereas, the Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and Depression were distributed by only 3.04%. Conclusion: Many existing interventions for older adults are simply research-based with limited generalizability; as such, further work in this area is warranted. It seems difficult to get a coherent view of the relationship between HRQot. and chronic disease when the conditions are varying as well as the ethnic and cultural background. The estimation of the relative impact of chronic diseases on HRQoL is necessary to better plan and distribution resources for research, training and health care, to further promote living well with chronic diseases.