Abstract
BackgroundTo investigate risk factors associated with low subjective well-being (SWB) in men and women (≥65 years) separately with a special focus on emotional distress.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis was conducted among 3602 participants (50.6% women) aged 65-90 years (mean age 72.8 years, SD ± 5.8) from the population-based KORA-Age study conducted in 2008/2009. SWB was assessed using the WHO-5 well-being index (score range: 0 to 100). SWB was dichotomized into “low” (score ≤ 50) and “high” (score > 50) SWB. The association between potential risk factors and SWB was assessed by logistic regressions analyses. Population-attributable risks (PARs) were calculated.ResultsLow SWB was significantly higher in women than in men (23.8% versus 18.2%; p < 0.0001). The logistic regressions analyses revealed low income, physical inactivity, multimorbidity, depression, anxiety and sleeping problems to be associated with low SWB in both sexes. Living alone increased the odds of having low SWB in women, but not in men. Depression and anxiety were the strongest risk factors of low SWB among men (depression: OR: 4.19, 95% CI: 1.33-13.17, p < 0.05; anxiety: 8.45, 5.14-13.87, p < 0.0001) and women (depression: 6.83, 2.49-18.75 p < 0.05; anxiety: 7.31, 5.14-10.39, p < 0.0001). In both sexes, anxiety had the highest population-attributable risk (men: 27%, women: 41%).ConclusionOur results call out for an increased focus on mental health interventions among older adults, especially for women living alone. Further research is needed to understand the paradoxical pattern of discrepant subjective well-being versus objective health in age.
Highlights
To investigate risk factors associated with low subjective well-being (SWB) in men and women (≥65 years) separately with a special focus on emotional distress
Puvill et al [13] showed that poor physical health was hardly related to lower life satisfaction in old age, whereas poor mental health was strongly related to lower life satisfaction
A total of 3602 participants were included in the analysis, among them 1780 (49.42%) were men
Summary
To investigate risk factors associated with low subjective well-being (SWB) in men and women (≥65 years) separately with a special focus on emotional distress. Middle aged individuals seem to be vulnerable for low well-being and mental distress. It is expected that adverse life conditions such as mental and physical decline, disease and disability, as well as major adverse live events (e.g. the loss of power, independence and companionship) may accumulate with increasing age. As life expectancy increases, a particular challenge lies within understanding factors that affect the well-being of older adults in . Puvill et al [13] showed that poor physical health was hardly related to lower life satisfaction in old age, whereas poor mental health was strongly related to lower life satisfaction
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