Let’s Walk It: Mobility and the Perceived Quality of Life in Older Adults

Abstract

European policy and the research and development landscape put forward a number of arguments in favor of implementing “Active Assisted Living” (AAL) for older adults: it will improve older adults’ quality of life, allow them to age in place, and keep costs for an ageing society down by exploiting new technology markets. The idea is that older adults who are supported by AAL and make use of assistive technologies will enjoy more freedom, autonomy, and mobility and also improved social integration and better communication. Yet, despite a history of more than 10 years of European research and development, the use of AAL applications is not as widespread as expected. To examine older adults’ attitudes to assistive technologies, we conducted a study in Vienna (Austria) between 2018 and 2020 questioning 245 older adults aged 61–93 years (M = 74.27 SD = 6.654) who lived at their private homes and had different support needs (ranging from “no support” to “everyday visit of social and/or care organizations”). The three goals of the study encompassed: (1) examination of their quality of life, (2) their attitudes and use of assistive technologies, and (3) the way they perceive their own and others’ life-course and getting older. AAL as a concept links “ageing in place” and “quality of life”. However, “mobility” is also of major importance here. In this paper, we aim to investigate the relation between the independent variables “Quality of life” and “Mobility” and their possible associations with the following dependent variables: cohabitation, social integration, self-rated health, sportive activities, locomotion, home well-being and safety, physical limitations, falls, and self-perception of their own ageing (compared to others). We calculated multivariate models regressing on these explaining and confounding variables. We found a positive correlation between mobility and quality of life. In detail, our results show a significant positive association between QOL and mobility regarding self-rated health and self-perception. Experiencing vertigo, walking difficulties, and balance problems significantly and negatively influence self-rated health and self-perception compared to others. Our findings can also be read as a clear message that there is a need to improve both health and the culture of ageing and to facilitate positive attitudes toward ageing as an efficient way to enhance the Quality of life of older adults.

Restricted life‐space mobility impacts physical but not mental quality of life in older cancer survivors

“…Our finding regarding mental QOL may indicate survivors had fewer worries, fears, and distress related to concerns about disease recurrence or new cancer due to their age or the further they got from their cancer diagnosis 44‐46 . Also, the mental QOL finding may indicate that, in general, the survivors in our study had less physical, psychosocial, residential area disadvantage, better coping skills, more experience with chronic illness, positive spiritual and religious coping, higher resilience, social connectedness, or good social support and perspective of illness, and protective effects of being married, which could have mitigated the influence of LSM on their mental health 7,42,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56 …”

“…30 Our findings on LSM are consistent with the extensive literature indicating that older adults, especially those with serious illnesses, experience decreased mobility, increased disability prevalence, and decreased ability to fulfill their daily life activities (especially outside the home), which negatively impacts their QOL, wellbeing, sense of freedom and independence, and social participation, which are all important for healthy aging. [41][42][43] As noted, a clinically significant decrease of 5 points in the LSM 32 score was associated with a statistically significant decrease in older adult's physical and mental QOL.…”

A Digital Health Service for Elderly People with Balance Disorders and Risk of Falling: A Design Science Approach

“…All the patients and caregivers revealed interest with this remote physician-patient interaction and asked for extension of the "BALANCE" digital service use. The motivation for physical activity is a well-defined public health policy for healthy ageing [43,44] and with the "BALANCE" digital service, we are motivating this in a clinical way.…”

IoT Smart Flooring Supporting Active and Healthy Lifestyles

“…IoT is widely exploited for health-oriented applications [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ], including highly specific solutions, supporting the needs of people with disabilities [ 6 , 7 ], or techniques for non-intrusive, continuous monitoring of relevant physiological parameters (e.g., blood pressure [ 8 ], heart rate [ 9 ]). Wearable sensors are widely used, with the non-wearable approach being sought for further reducing the burden of the user [ 10 , 11 ].…”