الفهرس 
صفحة العنوانOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Liver cirrhosis is characterized by diffuse nodular regeneration surrounded by dense fibrotic septa with subsequent collapse of liver structures and thus causes pronounced distortion of vascular architecture in the liver. As the end-stage of liver cirrhosis, cirrhosis contributes importantly to morbidity and mortality. Also has a negative impact on the patients’ quality of life (Rojas-Loureiro et al., 2017).
The various changes that occur in the liver with ageing could affect the clinical characteristics and outcomes in patients with liver cirrhosis compared to the younger patient. Viral infections are the commonest cause of liver cirrhosis. Health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) may be reduced by liver cirrhosis, and the impact did not differ markedly by type of disease but rather by older age and severity. Patients with liver cirrhosis show signs of psychological distress and depression in relation to severity of the disease through several complications which can impair activities of daily living and patient quality of life (Kim et al., 2016).
So, the current study aimed to assess the quality of life of elderly patients with liver cirrhosis in the outpatient clinics.
Aim of study:
Aim of this study is to assess the quality of life of elderly patients with liver cirrhosis in the outpatient clinics through the following objectives.
1-Assessing the knowledge of elderly patients with liver cirrhosis about liver cirrhosis
2- Assessing quality of life among elderly patients with liver cirrhosis
Results: the important findings that were obtained from the study can be summarized as follow:
Regarding to demographic characteristics of the study sample, the current revealed that, 63.9 % of the study sample were age from 60<65 year with mean age 62.83± 7.34 year, as well as 90.3% of them were male, while 81.9% of them were married, 86.1% of them unemployed, 83.3% of them residence in urban, all of them monthly income not enough to cover the expense of treatment and 76.4% of them live with wife. As regarded to education level of study sample, it was found that, more than half (51.4%) of them don’t read and write and more one fourth (13.9%) of them read and write, had basic education and had secondary education respectively. Also the minority (6.9%) of them had university and more.
Regarding to knowledge of study sample about liver cirrhosis, less than three quarters (72.3%) of the study sample had incorrect knowledge about meaning of liver cirrhosis, types and stages of liver cirrhosis. While, more than half (55.5%) of the study sample had correct knowledge about sign and symptoms of liver cirrhosis and methods of diagnosis, more than half, 58.4%, 58.4%,62.5% of the study sample had incorrect knowledge about causes, methods of prevention and treatment of liver cirrhosis respectively. Also more than two thirds (69.4%) of the study sample had correct knowledge about complications of liver cirrhosis.
Concerning to total knowledge score of study sample about liver cirrhosis, more than three quarters (80.0%) of the study sample had unsatisfactory knowledge about liver cirrhosis while one fourth (20.0%) of the study sample had satisfactory knowledge about liver cirrhosis.
Concerning to total Quality of Life score for the study sample regarding liver cirrhosis, nearly three quarters (71.8%) of the study sample had poor quality of life while more than one quarters (28.2%) of the study sample had good quality of life.
The study results indicated that, there were highly statistically significant relation between total scores of Qol of studied sample and their age, place of residence, marital status, level of education and monthly income at(p= <0.001).
The study finding showed that, there were highly statistically significant relation between total scores of knowledge of studied sample and their age, level of education and monthly income at(p= <0.001).
The study finding shows that, there was highly significant positive correlation between total knowledge scores and total QOL scores regarding liver cirrhosis among the studied sample.