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Aim: In the age we live in, human beings have lived longer than ever before in history. The increase in life expectancy has also led to the emergence and chronicization of different diseases. With the increase in the older population, the burden of chronic diseases has increased accordingly. Asthma and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) rank 3rd among the causes of death in our country. There-fore, this study aimed to determine the socio-demographic factors that affect the opinions and percep-tions of older adults diagnosed with asthma and COPD regarding the disease. Methods and Materials: In the study, 152 individuals aged 60 and over who applied to the chest diseases clinic for treatment con-stitute the sample of the study. Demographic information form and illness perception scale were used as data collection tools in the research. “Independent Samples T-Test” and “One-Way Analysis of Variance-ANOVA” were applied to determine the relationship between individuals' disease perceptions and socio-demographic variables. Findings: According to the findings of the study, 57.2% are women, 42.8% are men, and the average age is 65.5 (S = 8.2). 64.5% of the older adults have asthma, 28.3% have COPD, and 7.2% have both asthma and COPD. The rate of those who stated that the chronic disease "occasionally affects" their daily life activities (44.1%) is high. It has been determined that older adults have no con-trol over their disease, they think the disease will last a long time, they have high concerns and negative thoughts about the disease, they think they will not be able to recover with treatment, and they accept that they will spend the rest of their lives with this disease. At the same time, it has been observed that the education level, employment status and type of chronic disease reveal a significant difference in the views of older adults about the disease.. Results: Increasing the awareness of elderly individuals about chronic diseases is very important in terms of maintaining quality of life and life satisfaction. In this context, studies to inform asthma and COPD patients should be brought to the fore. |
