The effect of community-managed palliative care program on quality of life in the elderly in rural Tamil Nadu, India

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. MATERIALS AND 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.