EPA-0195 – Older Adults’ Adjustment to Aging in Old Adulthood: the Impact of Sense of Coherence, Subjective Well-Being and Socio-Demographic, Lifestyle and Health-Related Factors

Abstract

Objective:

The aim of this study was to build a structural model to explore the predictors of adjustment to aging (AtA) in a community-dwelling older population.

Methods:

A community-dwelling sample of 1270 older adults aged between 75 and 102 years answered a questionnaire to determine socio-demographic (sex, age, professional and marital status, education, household, adult children, family‘s annual income, living setting and self-reported spirituality), lifestyle and health-related characteristics (perceived health, recent disease, medication and leisure). Several instruments were used to assert psychological variables, namely AtA, sense of coherence and subjective well-being. Structural equation modeling was used to explore a structural model of the self-reported AtA, encompassing all variables.

Results:

Significant predictors are self-reported spirituality (β = .816; p < .001), perceived health (β = .455; p < .001), leisure (β = .322; p < .001), professional status (β = .283; p < .001), income (β = .230; p = .035), household (β = −.208; p = .007), sense of coherence (β = −.202; p = .004) and adult children (β = .164; p = .011). The variables explain respectively 60.6% of the variability of AtA.

Conclusions:

Self-reported spirituality is the strongest predictor of AtA. This study emphasizes the need for deepening the variables that influence older adults’ AtA, in particular perceived health and further lifestyle-related characteristics, as being relevant for promoting aging well in later life, within a salutogenic context for health care.