The relationship between general nutritional characteristics and quality of life in elderly individuals who receive home care service

The mean age was 81,6±7,10 in this study in which general nutritional characteristics and life quality of 173 elderly individuals who receive home care service were evaluated. Short Form-36 (SF-36) life quality scale was used to evaluate life quality of participants. SF-36 scores were evaluated in two summary part as physical and mental section. Physical and mental section points of men were higher than of women but there was no statistically significant difference (p>0,05). In addition, married individuals had higher physical and mental section scores than single individuals but the differences were not statistically significant (p>0,05). General appetite status of individuals were grouped as ‘poor’, ‘moderate’ and ‘well’. Physical and mental section scores of individuals who had poor appetite were significantly lower than the other groups (p<0,05). Also individuals who had chewing and swallowing difficulties and individuals who received nutritional support had quite lower physical and mental section scores than other groups (p<0,05). These results shows that there is a close relationship between general nutritional characteristics and life quality in elderly individuals who receive home care service