Satisfaction with Health Care Services Consumption and Life Satisfaction among the Elderly

Abstract

This article argues that overall life satisfaction is influenced by satisfaction within a variety of individual life domains. One of these is the marketing or consumptive domain, which includes the health care consumptive life domain. A study was conducted to test hypotheses that among elderly consumers (1) health care services satisfaction affects global evaluations of life or life satisfaction, (2) perceived personal health and cognitive age influence the elderly person's global evaluation of life, and (3) perceived personal health and cognitive age play a moderating role in the spillover effect between health care services satisfaction and life satisfaction. The study involved a mail survey sent to a sample of 560 elderly consumers. The results indicate that health care services satisfaction / dissatisfaction is positively related with life satisfaction / dissatisfaction, as expected. The results also indicate that perceived personal health and cognitive age are related to life satisfaction / dissatisfaction, and that perceived personal health may play a moderating role between health care satisfaction / dissatisfaction and life satisfaction / dissatisfaction. Contrary to expectations, cognitive age was found to affect life satisfaction / dissatisfaction independently of health care services satisfaction / dissatisfaction. The public policy and social importance implications of these findings also are discussed.