Components and determinants of quality of life in community-dwelling older adults

MARTINEZ-MARTIN, P.; PRIETO FLORES, M.E.; FORJAZ, M.J.; FERNANDEZ-MAYORALAS, G.; ROJO-PEREZ, F.; AYALA, A.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AGEING

Springer

Año: 2012

1613-9372

The objectives of this study are to detect themain components of global quality of life (QoL) of community-dwelling older adults from their own perspectiveand to identify determinants of health-related and globalQoL in the same population. This is a cross-sectional studycovering a representative sample of 1,106 communitydwellingadults aged 60 years and older residing in Spain.The survey collected information on QoL through a face-tofaceinterview asking for QoL components in free-format,as well as the completion of two QoL measures, the EQ-5Dand the Personal Wellbeing Index. The most importantQoL dimensions, according to the participants of thisstudy, were health, family, and finances. Depression wasthe main determinant of both QoL indices, while functionalindependence and social support specifically influencedhealth-related and global QoL, respectively. Based on theperspective of the older adults as well as on statisticalanalysis, this work emphasizes the importance of health,family, and social support as areas of special interest inaging. There was a discrepancy when comparing findingsrelated to the importance of financial status. Results alsosupport that global and health-related QoL share somecommon determinants, but with different weights forfunctional independence and social support.