Socio-Cognitive Correlates of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Institutionalized Elderly in Pakistan

Abstract

A cross-sectional correlational research design was used in the current study to examine the relationship between attachment styles, social connectedness, executive function domains, and health-related quality of life among institutionalized elderly. This study includes 200 institutionalized elderly people with age range of 60 to 75 years (M_age= 68.66; SD= 5.118) through purposive sampling strategy. The sample size was calculated by G power as 200 (n=100 institutionalized men elderly, n = 100 institutionalized women elderly). The sample was selected from old homes (Afiat Center Faisalabad and Edhii Center Faisalabad, Women Welfare Organization Sargodha) of Faisalabad and Sargodha, cities. Self-reported measures including the Attachment Styles Questionnaire (Bartholomew & Horowitz 1991), WHOQOL-BREF (WHO, 1998), Social Connectedness Scale (Lee et al., 2001), Control Measures including Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (Folstein et al., 1975), and Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), task-based measures including Digits span (WAIS-Ⅳ) (Wechsler, 1997), Stroop Color and Word Test (Stroop, 1935), and Trial Making Test (TMT) A and B (Partington & Leiter, 1949) were used. The findings reveled that secure attachment was significantly positively correlated with processing speed, cognitive shift, and social connectedness.  All insecure domains were found either negatively or uncorrelated with the executive functioning skills or HRQoL. This research will be a unique contribution in the field of gerontology specifically finding out the socio- cognitive correlates of HRQoL among the institutionalized elderly.