Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

The purpose of the cross-sectional study is to explore the quality of life of older people living in a high-risk earthquake disaster area in Sukamanah Village, West Java Province, Indonesia from the perspectives of the elderly themselves. Purposive sampling technique was used to choose eighty-nine subjects in the high-risk disaster area. The research instrument used standardized instruments with some modifications from WHO-QL Indonesian version. The results of this study found that the mean QOL score was 70.1, SD= 14.1 with a median score of 69. The score ranged from 42 to 116. Most of the subjects had QOL score in the range of 61 to 70, followed by 25 percent in a score range of 51 to 60. Poor QOL was seen among those who were unemployed and those unable to work. Subjects with low education or illiteracy were found to have a low QOL compared to literate participants (p<0.001). The social support to the elderly increased significantly to improve the QOL of subjects (p<0.05). Results also showed that socio-demographic variables like age group, education, marital status, personal income, the frequency of an earthquake experience have the significant correlation with the QOL of elderly. Multiple regression analysis found that variables like age, sex, marital status, occupation, and earthquake experience were strongly associated with QOL. This study had implication for improving the quality of elderly care and suggestion the social work practice model for elderly in the high-risk earthquake disaster areas.