Relationship of health, sociodemographic, and economic factors and life satisfaction in young-old and old-old elderly: a cross-sectional analysis of data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging.
Jin-Won Noh, Kyoung-Beom Kim, Ju Hyun Lee and 2 others
PMID 28931972WHAT IT FOUND
Among Korean adults aged 65 or older, lower life satisfaction was associated with depression, cognitive impairment, more daily dependence, less education, less family contact, lower assets, and Medical Aid.
For those 80+, age and one kind of social activity were associated; chronic disease was not.
Key findings
01Depression and higher daily-dependence score were associated with lower life satisfaction in both age groups.
02Cognitive impairment was associated with lower life satisfaction in the younger elderly group, and moderate or severe cognitive impairment was associated with lower life satisfaction in the older elderly group.
03Education, family communication, social activity, household assets, and insurance type were associated with higher life satisfaction, but the social-activity pattern differed between age groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it could not determine causality or changes over time. The old-old group had 927 participants, while the young-old group had 3,207, making the older group more likely to be affected by outliers. Only 4,134 of 7,813 interviewed participants were analyzed, because the study restricted analysis to adults aged 65 or older and excluded 327 who died. The authors removed extreme annual variations before analysis but still noted that future studies need larger samples.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The study used public data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, conducted by the Korea Employment Information Service.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing education, assets, social activity, or insurance type will raise life satisfaction. This was a cross-sectional analysis, so it cannot show cause and effect.