Health related quality of life in pregeriatric patients with chronic diseases at urban, public supported clinics.
BACKGROUND
Understanding health-related quality of life (HRQOL) leads to more effective and focused healthcare. America's growing health disparities makes it is increasingly necessary to understand the HRQOL of pregeriatric individuals who are now 55-64 years old, i.e. before they are eligible for federally mandated health care at age 65. Our study measured the self-perceived HRQOL of pregeriatric, poor patients with multiple chronic diseases treated at 2 public clinics.


METHODS
Consecutive patients aged 55-64 years, many with multiple chronic diseases, responded in an interview to the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) as a general measure of HRQOL during a regular visit to one of two university-staffed urban public clinics.


RESULTS
The perceived physical and mental functioning of 316 pregeriatric patients was tabulated from SF-36 scores to yield their HRQOL. Their scores were statistically significantly lower than those of the general US pregeriatric population and lower than averages for US patients with multiple chronic diseases. All eight subscale scores of SF-36 were 16% to 36% lower compared with the averages of the general US pregeriatric population. Further, as the number of chronic diseases increased, the lower was the HRQOL. Lower physical and mental scores were associated with a lower income, unemployment, and higher numbers of multiple chronic diseases.


CONCLUSIONS
Chronic diseases have a powerful negative impact on perceived mental and physical functioning in pregeriatric patients. HRQOL information can assist health care providers to gain a more complete picture of their pregeriatric patients' health.
Cheng
Lee
L
Department of Family Practice & Community Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School, Houston, Texas, USA. lee.cheng@uth.tmc.edu
Cumber
Salimah
S
Dumas
Carlos
C
Winter
Ronald
R
Nguyen
Kim M
KM
Nieman
Linda Z
LZ
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013781:Texas; D019037:Urban Health Services