Aging Clinical and Experimental Research

, Volume 21, Issue 4–5, pp 307–313 | Cite as

“As long as I’m in good health”. The relationship between medical diagnoses and life satisfaction in the oldest-old

  • Anne Ingeborg Berg
  • Linda B. Hassing
  • Sven E. Nilsson
  • Boo Johansson
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Background and aims: Life satisfaction in the elderly has usually been found to be closely related to self-rated health, and less to diagnoses and more objective measures of health status. However, few studies have examined the relative importance of various specific diagnoses in population-based samples. Methods: In this study, we investigate the relationship between life satisfaction and medical diagnoses in a non-demented sample of 392 participants aged 80 and older. Results: Among 25 common diagnoses, only sleeping problems, urinary incontinence and stroke were significantly related to life satisfaction. Men with angina pectoris and eczema were less satisfied with life compared with men without these diagnoses, whereas women with peptic ulcer were less satisfied with life compared with women without this diagnosis. Conclusions: Our results confirm previous findings of a weak relationship between medically based measures of health and life satisfaction. However, health care and future studies of health and quality of life need to focus on the fact that meaning and consequences of various diseases differ among individuals and that gender may partially account for variability.

Keywords

Gender health life satisfaction medical diagnoses oldest-old 
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Copyright information

© Springer Internal Publishing Switzerland 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  • Anne Ingeborg Berg
    • 1
  • Linda B. Hassing
    • 1
  • Sven E. Nilsson
    • 2
  • Boo Johansson
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of PsychologyUniversity of GothenburgGöteborgSweden
  2. 2.Institute of GerontologyJönköping UniversityJönköpingSweden

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