Older Adults’ Adjustment to Aging: The Impact of Sense of Coherence, Subjective Well-being and Socio-demographic, Lifestyle and Health-related Factors

Abstract

Introduction

Literature lacks of studies assessing correlates of adjustment to aging (AtA) among older populations.

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 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.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.