Health Related Quality of Life in Iranian Elderly Citizens: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Mohammad Farajzadeh, Reza Ghanei Gheshlagh, Kourosh Sayehmiri
PMID 28409164WHAT IT FOUND
Iranian older adults had an average SF-36 quality-of-life score of 53.2.
Healthy older adults scored higher than sick older adults, and scores did not improve with publication year.
Key findings
01Across 21 studies, 5318 older adults had an average SF-36 quality-of-life score of 53.2.
02Healthy older adults had a higher average SF-36 score (53.8) than sick older adults (50.6).
03Average quality-of-life scores did not change significantly with year of publication.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only studies using SF-36 were included, so the pooled score cannot be compared directly with studies using other quality-of-life tools. There was very high heterogeneity between studies (I2 99.8%), so the pooled average may not represent all older adults in Iran. The review could not separate different diseases because included studies varied, so it cannot say which condition lowers quality of life most. Many initial articles were excluded because they did not report separate quality-of-life scores for older adults or were not original studies, so the result rests on 21 articles. The included studies were conducted in Iran, so the scores may not apply to older adults in other countries.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the average score of 53.2, or the higher score in healthy older adults, as evidence that a care programme improves quality of life. The review pooled existing SF-36 scores and tested no treatment.