The chosen determiners of the quality of life of people over 60 years old in Poland and Slovakia

Introduction
All over the world society is growing old, and with age health is deteriorating. The research of the subjective evaluation of older people’s quality of life in sociodemographically similar countries is an important cognitive factor that influences the improvement of medical workers’ ways of behaviour. It stimulates the search for alternative ways of supporting people over 60 years of age, taking into account individual needs.

Aim of the research
In the research an answer to the following question was sought: do sociodemographic factors as well as factors connected to the level of fitness and body mass indicator influence the quality of life of people over 60 years of age in Poland and Slovakia.

Material and methods
This research was applied to a group of 1534 people over 60 years of age who were staying at home. The research was based on the author’s questionnaire and standardised research tools: Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, 30-Second Chair Stand test, and the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire for evaluating the quality of life. A significance level of 0.05 was assumed in all tests.

Results
On the level of significance p < 0.001 between the quality of life in the psychological sphere and the analysed variables there were: people at the age of 60–74 years, males, living in cities, married, overweight, who did not do the TUG test, or did it within < 10 s.

Conclusions
Independent from the analysed sociodemographic factors, the quality of life in the psychological sphere was significantly lower in the Polish group than in the group from Slovakia.