Psychosocial Consequences among Elderly Living In Institutional and Non-Institutional Settings

Background – Elderly people face many psychological, physical and socio economic morbidities due to ageing. Institutional settings have been opened for those elderly people who are neither able to take care of themselves nor is there any person to look after them. Objectives- The present research work was conducted to study the quality of life, loneliness and psychological distress of the elderly males and females living in institutions and non-institutional settings in urban Jammu district. Methods –The study was conducted using purposive sampling on 40 elderly living in institutional settings and 40 elderly living in non- institutional settings in the age range of 60-80 years. Tools used – GHQ  by Gautam, Nuhawan and Kamal ,UCLA loneliness scale(Russell, 1996)  and WHO (QOL-BREF, 1998),  was used. Results – The results revealed significant differences on loneliness and quality of life between those living in institutional settings and those living with their families.