Quality of Life of Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Spain

Abstract

Population aging is growing and, consequently, has attracted great interest in knowledge on the promotion of health and quality of life (QoL) in old age. In this context, a multidisciplinary team designed the CadeViMa Study, a cross-sectional study to assess the QoL of community-dwelling older people and to identify its associated factors. It incorporated a representative sample of 1106 people aged 60 years or older in Spain. QoL was assessed by means of a generic instrument for measuring health-related QoL (HRQoL), the EQ-5D, and a global QoL rating scale, the Personal Well-Being Index (PWI). The survey also gathered information on the sociodemographic, health-related, psychosocial, financial, and contextual characteristics of the participants. Results indicated that QoL of community-dwelling older adults was influenced by age, health status, loneliness, social support and disability. People aged 78 years or more reported a significantly lower QoL (PWI) than younger counterparts did. Logistic regression models showed that some chronic health conditions, such as osteoarticular or mental health disorders, and disability have a great impact on HRQoL and global QoL. Perceived loneliness and social support strongly influenced global QoL. Loneliness, in turn, was negatively associated to residential satisfaction. We also found that a high sense of coherence, a concept related to successful aging, is also associated to better QoL in old age. These results reflect the importance of the functional, social, mental, and contextual dimensions in the QoL of community-dwelling older adults, and may help to set the priorities of interventions addressed to preserve their QoL.