Quality of life and pain perception among elderly people: a cross-sectional study with a tribal community population

Background: Elderly population has increased in worldwide and quality of life (QOL) become an crucial indicator to improve elders’ life. Pain perception as an important factor of QOL, but the impact on elderly population remains unclear. Methods This study aims to investigate the quality of life and pain perception of the elderly population at Tribal community based on care center in Hualien (Taiwan). This study involved a cross-sectional investigation and used Pain Verbal Rating Scale and WHO QOL-BREF Taiwan Edition survey pain perception and QOL according to the the questionnaire. ANOVA, Independent Sample t test and Chi-square test were used to investigate the differences between demographic variables and the QOL. Further, the correlation between pain perception and the QOL were assessed using Multiple Regression analysis. Results Subjects average age were 70.85 years old. Females, literate, no spouse or co-habitant and those who did not feel a good sleep quality were the majority. Most of the subjects reported mild pain in the previous months, and the average overall QOL score was 56.56 that suggested a moderate QOL for subject’s. There was a significant difference between pain perception and race; the overall QOL significantly varied depending on race, marital status, sleep quality and pain perception. The overall QOL regression model was correlated to race, marital status, pain perception and sleep quality, that explained the 15% explanatory variable of overall QOL. This study implicated that there exists significant differences in pain perception and QOL amongst dissimliar races and ethnicity. Ethnic groups represented as one of the confounding factors that modulated pain perception and QOL amongst elderly population. Besides, marital status, pain perception, sleep quality were significantly attributed to QOL. Conclusion Based on our findings, we suggest that different care measures based on above influencing factors should be considered to improve the QOL for elderly individuals.