Life Satisfaction among Institutionalized and Non-Institutionalized Elderly People

The study aimed to investigate the level of life satisfaction among institutionalized and non-institutionalized elderly people. The present study was done on 160 elderly people (80 males and 80 females). Data were collected from different old age homes and elderly persons living with their family from Moradabad and Bareilly district. Hindi version of life satisfaction scale developed by Dr. Q.G Alam and Dr. Ramji Srivastava was used. Analysis was done using t-test to compare the two groups. Results suggested a significant difference between institutionalized and non-institutionalized elderly with regard to health and economic dimensions of life satisfaction. Findings revealed a low mean score of non-institutionalized elderly in comparison to institutionalized elderly with regard to health dimension, but a significantly high mean score on economic dimension. It can be concluded that institutionalized elderly showed more life satisfaction in health dimension. As far as economic is concerned non-institutionalized elderly people living with their family reflected more life satisfaction.