Stability and change in prospective measures of life satisfaction in older adults: Fibra Study

Abstract

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to identify the incidence and variables associated with stability and change in life satisfaction (LS) between baseline and 9-year follow-up, in community-dwelling-older adults. Method A prospective longitudinal study of baseline (BL; 2008-2009) and follow-up (FW; 2016-2017) data from the Frailty in Elderly Brazilians Study involving 360 individuals aged 71.7±5.0 years at BL, 68.9% women, was conducted. Associations of sociodemographic and psychosocial variables, and objective and subjective health indicators measured at BL with the incidence of stability and change in LS between BL and FW were investigated. Results Nine years after the BL collection, the following results were observed: higher incidence of stability (61.1%) than of worsening (26.4%) or improvement (12.5%) in LS; lower incidence of worsening of LS in the ≥80 age group than in the 70-79 years group; higher incidence of change than stability of LS among the participants with multimorbidities and scores > 6 for depressive symptoms; higher incidence of LS worsening among participants with low self-rated health (relative risk; RR=2.26) and low satisfaction with memory (RR=2.33). Conclusions The incidence of stability in LS was more frequent than that of worsening or improvement. Subjective indicators of physical health and satisfaction with memory may serve as indicators of deterioration in wellbeing over time and the presence of depressive symptoms may suggest instability in self-assessments, possibly accompanying a reduction or increase in LS over time. There was considerable heterogeneity in the manifestations of LS among the older adults assessed.