Quality of Life and Multimorbidity of Elderly Outpatients

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Substantial medical research has established an inverse relationship between quality of life and illness. However, there exists minimal evidence for such a connection in the context of stable and controlled diseases. OBJECTIVE: We wished to correlate multimorbidity with quality of life for elderly patients who suffer from stable chronic diseases. METHODS: We used a tool to evaluate quality of life, namely World Health Organization quality of life-BRIEF, together with a scale of multimorbidity known as the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale - Geriatric Version. Furthermore, the quality of life data were correlated with scores recorded on the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale - Geriatric Version, the number of drugs used, and individual perceptions of health and age. RESULTS: We studied 104 elderly patients who suffered from chronic diseases. The patients had exhibited neither acute events nor secondary complications, their cognition was intact, and they were functionally independent. The Cumulative Illness Rating Scale - Geriatric Version showed an inverse correlation with the physical domain (p= 0.008) and a tendency toward an inverse correlation with the psychological domain (p= 0.052). Self-perception of health showed a high correlation with the physical domain (p= 0.000), psychological domain (p= 0.000) and environmental domain (p= 0.000). The number of drugs used correlated only with the physical domain (p= 0.004). Age and social domain showed a tendency toward a positive correlation (p= 0.054). DISCUSSION: We uncovered an inverse relationship between quality of life and multimorbidity in a group of patients who suffered from stable chronic diseases, with no functional limitations, pain or complications. Our data suggest that a patient’s knowledge that they have a certain clinical condition changes their subjective assessment of quality of life in the related domain. CONCLUSION: The perceived quality of life of the sample was affected by multimorbidity in the physical domain, with a tendency toward commensurate effects in the psychological domain.

Socioeconomic and Health Conditions Associated With Quality of Life of Elderly Quilombolas

“…23 The number of medicines negatively influences the Environmental and Physical domains of the studied elderly's QoL and GQoL. These findings are similar to the study 22 in which a negative influence was found in the Physical domain. Nevertheless, a positive relation was found between medication use and the Psychological and Social Relations domains of the elderly quilombolas' QoL, which may be related with the positive response the medicine may have provided to these elderly people's health conditions.…”

“…These results are similar to the associated with the Social Relations domain of elderly people's QoL found in another study. 22 In addition, in a study that assessed the QoL of elderly people, it was evidenced that the elderly's background health conditions are one of the factors that most influenced the perceived QoL. 19 The number of main health problems in the elderly was strongly associated with the QoL and GQoL, except for the Psychological domain that, although less intense, interfered negatively in the QoL.…”

Evaluation factors for determining the quality of life of physically independent elderly

“…Similarly, there are reports of an inverse association between the presence of comorbidities and quality of life (13) , a fact corroborated by a systematic review consisted of 30 studies. (21) Nobrega et al, (21) evaluated the association between multimorbidity and quality of life in elderly patients with stable chronic diseases, with a final sample of 104 subjects, and found that with the increasing number of comorbidities, quality of life in sêniors worsened (mainly in the physical, psychological and social aspects). Similar data were also observed by other authors.…”

“…According to Nobrega et al, (21) the number of medications used adversely influences the quality of life of patients in the physical domain, and this finding may be possibly related to a higher prevalence of physical inactivity in this population.…”

The Factors of Musculoskeletal Pain in Geriatric Patients and the Relationship between Pain and Quality of Life

“…Scoring system goes like this, 0: no disease; 1(mild): disease with no need for medical attention which does not affect daily activities of patients and good prognosis; 2 (moderate): disease which needs medical attention but no expected complications with good prognosis; 3 (severe): disease which needs urgent medical attention with a bad prognosis; 4 (very severe): disease with a death risk. With each system scored accordingly, CIRS total score varies from 0 to 52 [12].…”