Spirituality and quality of life in older adults: a path analysis model

Abstract

Background Study older adults’ quality of life is becoming increasingly important in the assessment, quality improvement and allocation of health and social care service. The purpose of this study was to enhance knowledge on the relationship between modifiable (psychological variables) and non-modifiable variables (sociodemographic), and quality of life in elderly, regarding psychological and social variables in Portuguese context. Methods This is a cross-sectional study, including 604 older adults from general community. 63.6% of the sample was composed by female gender with a mean age of 71.6(SD = 4.81). Participants completed the following instruments: Barthel Index to assess functionality; Satisfaction with Social Support Scale to assess social support; The Spiritual and Religious Attitudes in Dealing with Illness to assess spirituality and Short Form Health Survey 36, to assess mental and physical quality of life. Results A path analysis model was performed where the presence of a chronic disease, age and functionality has a direct effect on physical quality of life and spirituality had a direct effect on mental quality of life. Social support mediated the relationship between functionality and mental quality of life, and in turn, functionality mediated the relationship between age and physical quality of life. Conclusions Results reinforce the effect of age and chronic disease as non-modifiable variables as well as functionality, spirituality and satisfaction with social support as modifiable variables, in the quality of life of older people. Social support, health and education programs in the community should be promoted in order to improve quality of life in this population. Strategies to promote functionality and enhance the social support network, especially in the elder with chronic illness, should be a priority.

A Latent Class Analysis of Health-Related Quality of Life in Korean Older Adults

“…In this study, the physical disability type had trust in the social environment, participated in social activities, and trusted and used social support despite health issues, when compared to other classes. This is thought to improve self-care and influence HRQOL [31,32].…”

“…In terms of social health, the degree of contact with peers, trust in the social environment, and social activities were significant when compared to the stable type. Social support can be considered from the perspective of the degree of contact with peers and perception of older adults [42], and it mediates the relationship between peer relationships and mental health [31]. Lee and Ko reported that older adults were more likely to experience health issues when they had lower levels of contact with peers, had lower levels of trust in the social environment, and participated in social activities less often [23].…”

Implicações da depressão na qualidade de vida do idoso: estudo seccional

“…La CV ha sido interpretada a través de varios conceptos que han surgido en los últimos años debido a su carácter integral, subjetivo y multidimensional (10) . Es una variable que depende de varios factores intrínsecos y extrínsecos y comenzó a conceptualizarse en los años setenta, en el contexto del avance de la medicina (11) . Así, la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) definió un concepto de CV, que será adoptado como marco teórico de este estudio, como "la percepción que tiene el individuo de su posición en la vida, en el contexto de la cultura y de los sistemas de valores en los que vive y en relación con sus metas, expectativas, estándares e inquietudes" (12) .…”

The Role of Spirituality in Conceptualizations of Health Maintenance and Healthy Aging Among Latin American Immigrants

“…One potential complementary behavioral intervention for brain health promotion in the aging population involves the role of spirituality and religiosity, which have similarly been recognized as modifiable variables implicated in wellbeing 7 . Furthermore, attention to spirituality and religiosity have the potential to enable the tailoring of interventions focused on the above nine modifiable risk factors, for instance via the pathway of decreasing social isolation 8 .…”