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Determinants of psychosocial factors amongst the oldest old: Longitudinal evidence based on the representative "survey on quality of life and subjective well-being of the very old in North Rhine-Westphalia"
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Determinants of psychosocial factors amongst the oldest old: Longitudinal evidence based on the representative "survey on quality of life and subjective well-being of the very old in North Rhine-Westphalia"

André Hajek, Razak M Gyasi, Benedikt Kretzler, Steffi G Riedel-Heller and Hans-Helmut König
International journal of geriatric psychiatry, Vol.38(12), e6031
12/2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.6031
PMID: 38038646
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Determinants of psychosocial factors amongst the oldest old: Longitudinal evidence based on the representative “survey on quality of life and subjective well-being of the very old in North Rhine-Westphalia”229.85 kBDownloadView
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Determinants of psychosocial factors amongst the oldest old: Longitudinal evidence based on the representative “survey on quality of life and subjective well-being of the very old in North Rhine-Westphalia”View
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Abstract

80 and over aged depression functional impairment life satisfaction loneliness oldest old spousal loss
Objectives There are few studies investigating the determinants of psychosocial outcomes using data exclusively from the oldest old; and even fewer that use longitudinal data. Thus, our aim was to explore the determinants of psychosocial factors (in terms of life satisfaction, loneliness, and depressive symptoms) amongst the oldest old (also stratified by sex) based on representative, longitudinal data from Germany. Methods/Design Data from “Survey on quality of life and subjective well-being of the very old in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW80+)” were used. This study includes community-dwelling and institutionalized individuals aged 80 years and above (n = 1760 observations in the analytical sample) located in North Rhine-Westphalia (the most populous state in Germany). The mean age was 86.6 years (SD: 4.3 years). Established instruments were used to quantify life satisfaction, loneliness, and depressive symptoms. Linear FE regressions were used in this study to mitigate the challenge of unobserved heterogeneity. Sex-stratified regressions were also conducted. Results: Regressions showed that the loss of a spouse was significantly associated with worsening psychosocial factors (in terms of increases in depressive symptoms and loneliness). Furthermore, regressions revealed that increases in functional impairment were significantly associated with poorer psychosocial outcomes. Conclusions This longitudinal study enhanced our understanding of the factors contributing to poorer psychosocial outcomes among the oldest old. Efforts to avoid or postpone functional impairment may contribute to more favorable psychosocial outcomes. Moreover, our current study underlines the importance of spousal relationships for psychosocial outcomes in the oldest age group.

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