2002 Volume 12 Issue 4 Pages 306-313
Questionaire studies were performed for non-institutinalized elderly (males: 87; females: 219) of 70years or older (average: 79.2years old) in order to investigate how the subjective QOL (Quality of Life) is affected by their dietary life from the view point of living arrangements and ADL (Activity of Daily Living). Five factors were extracted by factor analyses of the questionaire;i. e., satisfaction of dietary life. ADL, subjective QOL, human relations and worth living, and peace of mind. The subjects were divided into 4 groups based on the score of ADL and living arrangement (with or without families), i. e., living with families with a high ADL, living alone with high ADL, living with families with a low ADL, and living alone with a low ADL. As the number of living alone with a low ADL (n=8) was very low, the analyses were performed on the other 3 groups, living with families with a high ADL (n=135), living alone with a high ADL (n=80), and living with families with a low ADL (n=77). The scores of the subjective QOL was not different among the 3 groups, and the subjective QOL significantly (p<0.01) correlated with thescores of satisfaction of dietary life, human relation and worth living, and peace of mind. However, the role of dietary life was suggested to be different. The worth of diet life for the elderly with a high ADL was mostly focused on the communication with families and/or friends at meal time, but that for the elderly with a low ADL was focused on the preference of the meal itself. In addition, mastication ability was significantly correlated to the food intake and the satisfaction of dietary life. The oral health care was also indicated to be very important in order to increase the individual QOL of the elderly.
