Analysis of quality of life, sociodemographic variables and self-reported diseases among working older adults

Abstract

Background: Aging should not be seen as a hindrance to the continuity of work, while including older adults in the labor market contributes to national economies. Objective: To analyze the association between subjective quality of life (QoL) assessment, sociodemographic variables and self-reported morbidity among working older adults. Methods: The present study was conducted at farmers' markets in Presidente Prudente, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Participants were 24 older adults aged 68.69±6.5 years old. We administered the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-bref) questionnaire, a sociodemographic questionnaire including working conditions and a questionnaire to survey the participants' medical history. The normality assumption was assessed with the Shapiro-Wilk test. Pearson's and Spearman's tests were used for correlation analysis. Results: The sample exhibited average QoL. Most participants were female, with 1 to 8 years of formal schooling, married, with family income 1 to 3 times the equivalent of the minimum wage and sought healthcare within the national health system. All the participants lived in their own house. Hypertension was the most prevalent disease. Conclusion: QoL and morbidity exhibited moderate negative correlation. There was negative correlation between the QoL physical and psychological domains and variables years in the job, daily working hours, meal/rest breaks and number of meals/day. There was moderate negative correlation between the QoL environment domain and meal/rest breaks.