engleski

Relationship Between Functional Disabilities and Home Care Needs of Elderly in the City of Zagreb

The demographic profile of the Republic of Croatia is changing intensively. According to published research, it is estimated that soon every fourth resident in Croatia including the City of Zagreb will be older than 65 years. Increased number of the elderly also increases the need for elderly care. Long-term care services make people dependent on someone else's help over a longer period. Help most usually involves satisfying basic daily activities such as feeding, bathing, dressing, moving, maintaining personal hygiene, doing housework, and other similar activities. The aim of this work was to determine the functional status of the elderly in the City of Zagreb, and to investigate whether there are differences in self-assessed personal quality of life and functional status depending on whether the health care in the home of the elderly is provided. The study was conducted on elderly of both sexes (N = 100) from the City of Zagreb divided into the group of those who receive health care at home and those who have no need for such care. Structured questionnaire with sociodemographic issues of WHOQOL-BREF and scale of Bartel's daily activity index were assessed. The study showed statistically significant differences in functional ability between the observed groups. The elderly receiving home health care have grater functional disability compared to the group of elderly not receiving home health care despite no statistically significant differences between groups in self- assessed quality of life.

elderly, home health care, self-assessed quality of life, functional disability

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