Quality of life, health and physiological status and change at older ages

• The relationship between self-reported health status and quality of life at older ages is well established. The present paper investigates this relationship further, using objective measures of health and their change over time in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, where positive quality of life at older ages was measured as CASP-19. Cross-sectionally, lung function and obesity, but not blood pressure, were associated with quality of life; these relationships in path analysis were transmitted primarily via functional limitation and more modestly, and only for lung function, via clinical depression. Longitudinally, the results suggest a stable and long-term influence on quality of life of lung function and, among women, body mass index, to which the influence of change may be cumulative; longer follow-up is required to clarify these processes. Overall, the results show that the relationship between health and quality of life is independent of potential psychological confounders, that functional limitation is the key dimension of health in its relationship with quality of life and that clinical depression may be an important mediator between functional limitation and quality of life.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Activities of Daily Living

Aged

Aged; 80 and over

Aging/*physiology/*psychology

Blood Pressure

Body Mass Index

Chronic Disease

Cross-Sectional Studies

England

Female

Health Status Indicators

Humans

Lung/physiology

Male

Quality of Life

Sex Factors

MEDICINE

MEDICIN

Social medicine

Socialmedicin

Socialmedicin

Social Medicine

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)