Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:21:43.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Subjective well-being amongst community-dwelling elders: what determines satisfaction with life? Findings from the Dublin Healthy Aging Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2011

Aine M. Ní Mhaoláin ,
Damien Gallagher ,
Henry O Connell ,
A. V. Chin ,
Irene Bruce ,
Fiona Hamilton ,
Erin Teehee ,
Robert Coen ,
Davis Coakley  and
Conal Cunningham
...Show all authors
Aine M. Ní Mhaoláin*
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Damien Gallagher
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Henry O Connell
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
A. V. Chin
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Irene Bruce
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Fiona Hamilton
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Erin Teehee
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Robert Coen
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Davis Coakley
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland Department of Medicine for the Elderly, St James's Hospital, James's Street, Dublin, Ireland
Conal Cunningham
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland Department of Medicine for the Elderly, St James's Hospital, James's Street, Dublin, Ireland
J. B. Walsh
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland Department of Medicine for the Elderly, St James's Hospital, James's Street, Dublin, Ireland
Brian A. Lawlor
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr Aine M. Ní Mhaoláin, MIRA, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland. Phone: +353 1 4284095. Fax: +353 1 4103487. Email: [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

Background: Life satisfaction is a subjective expression of well-being and successful aging. Subjective well-being is a major determinant of health outcomes in older people. The aim of this study was to determine which factors predicted well-being in older people living in the community as measured by their satisfaction with life.

Methods: The relationship between life satisfaction, as measured by the Life Satisfaction Index (LSI-A) and physical, cognitive and demographic variables was examined in 466 older people living in the community using a stepwise regression model

Results: Depression, loneliness, neuroticism, extraversion, recent participation in physical activity, age and self-reported exhaustion, were the independent predictors of life satisfaction in our elderly cohort.

Conclusion: Subjective well-being, as measured by the Life Satisfaction Scale, is predicted by depression, loneliness, personality traits, recent participation in physical activity and self-reported exhaustion. The mental and emotional status of older individuals, as well as their engagement in physical activity, are as important as physical functionality when it comes to life satisfaction as a measure of well-being and successful aging. These areas represent key targets for intervention.

Keywords

life satisfactionquality of lifemental healthsuccessful aging
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , February 2012 , pp. 316 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asakawa, T., Koyano, W., Ando, T. and Shibata, H. (2000). Effects of functional decline on quality of life among the Japanese elderly. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 50, 319–328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowling, A. (1997). Measuring health. a review of Quality of Life Measurement Scales. In Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires. Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Bowling, A. (2005). Ageing Well: Quality of Life in Old Age. London: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Charlson, M., Szatrowski, T., Peterson, J. and Gold, J. (1994). Validation of a combined comorbidity index. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 47, 1245–1251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebersole, P. (1995). Quality of life: what is it? Geriatric Nursing, 16, 49–50.Google Scholar
Eysenck, S. and Eysenck, H. (1964). An improved short questionnaire for the measurement of extraversion and neuroticism. Life Sciences, 3, 1103–1109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferring, D. et al. (2004). Life satisfaction of older people in six European countries: findings from the European study on adult well being. European Journal of Ageing, 1, 15–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghubach, R., El-Rufaie, O., Zoubeidi, T., Sabri, S., Yousif, S. and Moselhy, H. (2009). Subjective life satisfaction and mental disorders among older adults in UAE in general population. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 25, 458–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haybron, D. (2000). Two philosophical problems in the study of happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 207–225.Google Scholar
Headey, B., Kelly, J. and Wearing, A. (1993). Dimensions of mental health: life satisfaction, positive affect, anxiety and depression. Social Indicators Research, 29, 63–82.Google Scholar
Hilleras, P., Jorm, A., Herlitz, A. and Winblad, B. (2001). Life satisfaction among the very old: a survey on a cognitively intact sample aged 90 years and above. International Journal Aging and Human Development, 52, 71–90.Google Scholar
Lawton, M. and Brody, E. (1969). Assessment of older people: self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. Gerontologist, 9, 179–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lupien, S. and Wan, N. (2004). Successful ageing: from cell to self. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359, 1413–1426.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mannel, R. and Dupuis, S. (1996). Life satisfaction. In Birren, J. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Gerontology: Age, Aging, and the Aged (pp. 59–64). Los Angeles: Academic Press.Google Scholar
McCamish-Svensson, C., Samuelsson, G., Hagberg, B., Svensson, T. and Dehlin, O. (1999). Social relationships and health as predictors of life satisfaction in advanced old age – results from a Swedish longitudinal study. International Journal Aging and Human Development, 48, 301–324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meyer, C., Rumpf, H., Hapke, U. and John, U. (2004). Impact of psychiatric disorders in the general population: satisfaction with life and the influence of comorbidity and disorder duration. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 39, 435–441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Michael, B., Spitzer, M., Robert, L., Gibbon, M. and Williams, J. (2002). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders, Research Version, Non-patient Edition. (SCID-I/NP). New York: Biometrics Research.Google Scholar
Miller, J. and Pilkonis, P. (2006). Neuroticism and affective instability: the same or different? American Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 839–845.Google Scholar
Musselwhite, C. and Haddad, H. (2010). Mobility, accessibility and quality of later life. Quality in Ageing and Older Adults., 11, 25–38.Google Scholar
Neugarten, B., Havighurst, R. and Tobin, S. (1961). The measurement of life satisfaction. Journal of Gerontology, 16, 134–143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radloff, S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reig, A. (2003). Quality of life. In Fernandez-Ballasteros, R. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychological Assessment (pp. 800–805). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Sato, T. (2005). The Eyesenck Personality Questionnaire Brief Version: factor structure and reliability. Journal of Psychology, 139, 545–552.Google Scholar
Schwarz, N. and Strack, F. (1991). Evaluating one's life: a judgement model of subjective well-being. In Argyle, M. (ed.), Subjective Well Being (pp. 27–48) Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Slocum-Gori, S., Zumbo, B., Michalos, A. and Diener, E. (2009). A note on the dimensionality of quality of life scales: an illustration with the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Social Indicators Research, 92, 489–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiner, J., Tebes, J., Sledge, W. and Walker, M. (1995). A comparison of the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-III-R and clinical diagnoses. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 183, 365–369.Google Scholar
Subasi, F. and Hayran, O. (2005). Evaluation of life satisfaction index of elderly people living in nursing homes. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 41, 23–29.Google Scholar
Veenhoven, R. (1996). Development in satisfaction research. Social Indicators Research, 37, 1–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, K. and Wheeler, A. (2002). Reliability generalization of the Life Satisfaction Index. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 62, 674–684.Google Scholar
WHO (1998). Life in the 21st Century: A Vision for All. World Health Report 1998 Press Kit. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar