EPIDEMIOLOGY OF SELF-DEPENDENCE AMONG KUWAITI ELDERLY POPULATION OF ABDULLAH AL-SALEM AREA

X² test was used to assess the significance of differences in the distribution of selected socio-demographic and health characteristics among participants with P < 0.05 considered as significant. Self-dependence for A D L was defined as the
dependent variable. Age, sex, marital status, medical diagnoses, social status, mobility, nutritional state, mental state and depression were the independent variables. Spearman’s Correlation test was used with P value < 0.01 considered highly significant. Mann-Whitney testing was used to compare those who received care in the clinic with
those who were seen at home; P < 0.01 was considered significant.

Results
Socio-demographic Characteristics: Table 1 shows the major socio-demographic characteristics of the studied population in which the majority were below the age of 85 (74%), the mean age of participants was 78.3 ± 6, (range 76 - 79), the majority were females (70%), married (65%), had adequate social support (55%), and the majority never lived alone 96.5% and 77% were living in nuclear family. The majority never smoked (72%), 21% were smokers but stopped and only 6% were still smoking.

Health status and Health assessment: Table 2 shows the main characteristics of the health status of the sample, 59% of the patients were having two or more medical diseases, 64% of patients mainly depended on themselves, while 36% sometimes or never depended on themselves. 80.5% had hearing impairment, and 91% had visual impairment. 93% showed no evidence of nutritional defect, 79% showed no evidence of mental defect, the prevalence of dementia was 18% (P = 0.00). The prevalence of depression was 25% (P = 0.001), 87.5% of the patients were already receiving medications for medical illnesses while 12.5% were not on any medication, 86 % were compliant to their medications while 14 % were not compliant to medications.

Self-dependence for ADL: Table 3 showed that self-dependence
for ADL was significantly correlated to age (P = 0.000), visual impairment (P = 0.000), mobility (P= 0.000), nutritional status, the presence of depression (P = 0.000), the general mental state (P = 0.000), and marital status (P = 0.000). There was no significant association of self-dependence for ADL with adequacy of social support, sex of the patient nor the medical diagnoses the patient had.
Out of 113 patients, 87 were seen in the clinic while 26 were seen at home. Mann-Whitney comparison test showed high statistical significance (P = 0.00), when comparing those seen in the clinic to those seen at home in relation to their age, marital status, mobility, general mental state, self-dependence, general appearance and nutritional state.

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the elderly patients included in the study