Environmental factors and life satisfaction of community-dwelling older adults

FORJAZ, M.J.; PEDRERO, P.; PRIETO FLORES, M.E.; ROJO-PEREZ, F.; FERNANDEZ-MAYORALAS, G.; RODRIGUEZ-RODRIGUEZ, V.

Congreso; Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting; 2015

Purpose: Life satisfaction is an important indicator of wellbeing in older adults. With age, older adults experience a change in health and life conditions, including social and physical environmental aspects of the neighborhood. This study examined how life satisfaction is influenced by physical and social environment, taking into account health and sociodemographics.Methods: We used a representative sample of 1357 adults aged 50 years or more, from the ELES survey pilot wave (Ageing in Spain Longitudinal Study, Pilot Survey). A step-wise multiple linear  regression analyzed how social life (social support and loneliness  scales) and physical environment (perception of security/delinquency, pollution, obstacles, and public transportation) influenced life satisfaction (0-10 Likert-type scale). We controlled for demographics (sex, age, marital status), socio-economic status (education, social class, and income), and health (self-perceived health; depression; number of chronic medical conditions; emotional balance; functional ability; and cognition).Results: Better life satisfaction was significantly associated with higher social life and lower delinquency problems. Other significant factors were better self-perceived health, lower number of chronic medical conditions, lower depression and more positive emotional balance (adjusted R-squared=0.28).Conclusions: Older adults could benefit from interventions to improve global wellbeing measures, such as life satisfaction, that take into account health, social and environmental aspects of their neighborhood.