Satysfakcja z życia starszych osób mieszkających w wybranych miejscowościach wiejskich województwa małopolskiego

Abstract

Background. The sense of life satisfaction of the elderly has become an important issue in geriatric care. The term „life satisfaction of the elderly” expresses a balanced multi-factor evaluation, which includes the evaluation of present life and of life achievements. Knowledge about factors related to low life satisfaction among the elderly is important in improving their quality of life and health. Objectives. The aim of the study was to estimate the life satisfaction and its predictors among elderly people living in rural areas. Material and Methods. The study was conducted personally, using interviews based on the structural questionnaires, during the period from March 2011 to October 2012. The group of respondents consisted of 203 people aged 65 years and older, living in rural areas of Małopolska Region. Life satisfaction was assessed using the LSITA SF scale. The linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the factors influencing the life satisfaction score. The analysis of collected research material was performed using the statistical package SPSS 19 for Windows. The level of significance for the tested the hypotheses assumed value of 0.05. Results. Among participants 61.6% of them were female. The mean age in the total sample was 75.5 years (SD = 5.7). Life satisfaction score was 26.3 (SD = 7.8). The multivariate analysis suggested that poor self-health assessment, disability in physical functioning, high risk of malnutrition and bad family relationships were significantly associated with low level of their life satisfaction. In addition, high scores of life satisfaction were in line with an increased participants’ age. Conclusions. Life satisfaction of the elderly living in rural areas was determined by: age, self-health assessment, disability in physical functioning, the risk of malnutrition and family relationships. These factors need to be considered in the care of these people to preserve or improve their life satisfaction