Enjoyment of life and declining physical function at older ages: A longitudinal cohort study

Abstract

Background: Positive affective well-being (i.e., feelings of happiness and enjoyment) has been associated with longer survival and re - duced incidence of serious illness. Our objective was to discover whether enjoyment of life also predicted a reduced risk of functional impairment over an 8-year period in a large population sample. Methods: We carried out a prospective an - alysis involving 3199 men and women aged 60 years or older from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Enjoyment of life was as - sessed by questionnaire. Outcomes were im - pairment in 2 or more activities of daily living and changes in gait speed on a walking test. Covariates included sociodemographic factors, baseline health, depressive symptoms, impairment of mobility and health behaviours. Results: Two or more impaired activities of daily living developed among 4.4%, 11.7% and 16.8% of participants in the high, medium and low enjoyment-of-life tertiles, respectively. After adjustment for covariates, the odds of impaired activities of daily living developing were 1.83 (95% confidence interval 1.13-2.96) in the low compared with high tertile. Gait speed after 8 years was also related to baseline enjoyment of life after adjustment for gait speed and other covariates at baseline (p < 0.001). We obtained similar results when we limited analyses to participants younger than 70 years at baseline. Interpretation: This is an observational study, so causal conclusions cannot be drawn. But our results provide evidence that reduced en - joyment of life may be related to the future disability and mobility of older people. © 2014 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors.