title: The effect of community-managed palliative care program on quality of life in the elderly in rural Tamil Nadu, India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  HelpAge India has been facilitating community-managed palliative care program in the villages of Tamil Nadu, India.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of perceived quality of life in the elderly in the project villages in rural Tamil Nadu.
  
  
  METHODS
  It was a community-based evaluation study. Considering the mean difference of 0.6, design effect-2, precision-5%, power 80%, and 10% non-response, a sample size of 450 elderly persons (more than 60 years) was adequate. Sample was selected by two-stage cluster sampling. Tamil version of "WHO-Quality of Life-brief questionnaire" was used. Trained interviewers made house-to-house visits and obtained information by personally interviewing the subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean score for perceived physical quality of life in the project area was (10.47 ± 1.80 SD) high than the mean score (10.17 ± 1.82 SD) in the control area (P = 0.013) and the mean score for psychological support (10.13 ± 2.25 SD) in project area was high than the mean score (9.8 ± 2.29 SD) in control area (P = 0.043). There was no effect on domain of social relationship and environment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the project villages, the perceived physical quality of life and psychological support among elderly persons was significantly better than the control villages.
authors: Department of Community Medicine, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital, Puducherry, India.
authors: Amol R
authors: AR
authors: Dongre
authors: Koonjangad P
authors: KP
authors: Rajendran
authors: Suresh
authors: S
authors: Kumar
authors: Pradeep R
authors: PR
authors: Deshmukh
keywords: Environment; India; Old age; Physical; Psychological; Quality of life; Rural; Social