Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Life events and the quality of life in old age. Report from a medical-social intervention study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Aging Clinical and Experimental Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In a broad medical-social intervention study in Sweden regarding the possibility of postponing/preventing age-related dysfunction, changes in the subjective evaluation of quality of life (QL) and the experience of major life events (LE) were recorded in the age interval 70–76 years. Significantly more negative than positive LE were reported, and the most common was related to disease and death in the family. Children’s divorce was rated as the most serious negative LE; the most common positive LE were travel and birth of a grandchild, but recovery from disease was ranked highest. Despite the predominance of negative LE, QL scores improved both in a representative population sample that was given support in the form of a medical-social intervention for 2 years, and in a control sample that underwent the identical systematical health surveys but received no further active help. As the study did not demonstrate any differences in outcome measurement (QL) between the supported subjects and the controls, it was not possible to discern whether the retained well-being could be attributed the intervention as was hypothesized.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lawton M.P.: A multidimensional view of quality of life in frail elders. In: Birren J.E., Lubben J.E., Rowe J.C., Deutchman D.E. (Eds.), The concept and measurement of quality of life in the frail elderly. Academic Press, San Diego, 1991, pp. 3–27.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Palmore E., Luikart C.: Health and social factors related to life satisfaction. J. Health Soc. Behav. 13: 68–80, 1972.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Hunt S., McEwen J., McKenna S.P.: Perceived health: age and sex norms in a community. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 38: 156–160, 1984.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Perlman R.A., Uhlmann R.F.: Quality of life in chronic diseases. Perceptions of elderly patients. J. Gerontol. 43: M25–M30, 1988.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Padilla G.V., Grant M.M., Ferrell B.: Nursing research into quality of life. Qual. Life Res. 1: 341–348, 1992.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. de Haan R., Aaronson N., Limburg M., Hewer R.L., van Crewel H.: Measuring quality of life in stroke. Stroke 24: 320–327, 1993.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Naughton M.J., Wiklund I.: A critical review of dimensionspecific measures of health-related quality of life in crosscultural research. Qual. Life Res. 2: 397–432, 1993.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Grimby A., Wiklund I.: Health-related quality of life in old age. A study among 76-year-old Swedish urban citizens. Scand. J. Soc. Med. 22: 7–14, 1994.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Visser M.C., Fletcher A.E., Parr G., Simpson A., Bulpitt C.J.: A comparison of three quality of life instruments in subjects with angina pectoris: the Sickness Impact Profile, the Nottingham Health Profile, and the Quality of Well Being Scale. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 47: 157–163, 1994.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Herlitz J., Karlson B.W., Wiklund I., Bengtson A.: Prognosis and gender differences in chest pain patients discharged from an ED. Am. J. Emerg. Med. 13: 127–132, 1995.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Spilker B., Simpson R.L., Tilson H.H.: Quality of Life Bibliography and Indexes. 1991 Update. J. Clin. Res. Pharmacoepidem. 6: 205–266, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Rinder L., Roupe S., Steen B., Svanborg A.: Seventy-yearold people in Gothenburg. A population study in an industrialized Swedish city. I. General presentation of the study. Acta Med. Scand. 198: 397–407, 1975.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Svanborg A.: Seventy-year-old people in Gothenburg. A population study in an industrialized Swedish city. II. General presentation of social and medical conditions. Acta Med. Scand. (Suppl. 611): 5–37, 1977.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Svanborg A.: The health of the elderly population: Results from longitudinal studies with age-cohort comparisons. In: Research and the Aging Population. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, U.K., 1988, pp. 3–18.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Eriksson B.G., Mellström D., Svanborg A.: Medical-social intervention in a 70-year-old Swedish population. A general presentation of methodological experience. Comprehensive Gerontology 1: 49–56, 1987.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Svanborg A.: A medical-social intervention in a 70-year-old Swedish population: Is it possible to postpone functional decline in aging? J. Gerontol. 48: 84–88, 1993.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Datan N., Ginsberg L.H.: Life span developmental psychology: Normative life crisis. Academic Press, New York, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Davies A.D.M., Hulligan A.: Perception of life stress events by older and younger women. Percept. Motor Skills 60: 925–926, 1985.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Holmes T.H., Masuda M.: Life change and illness susceptibility. In: Scott J.P., Senay E.S. (Eds.), Symposium on Separation and Depression. Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., Washington, D.C., Pub. No. 94, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Rubenowitz S.: Metodutveckling för kartläggning av psykosociala faktorer att beakta i samband med den regionala utvecklingsplaneringen. Methodological development in assessing psycho-social factors in community planning. Report from the Department of Psychology, University of Göteborg, Sweden, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Berg S.: Psychological functioning in 70- and 75-year-old people. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 62 (Suppl.), 1980.

  22. Holmes T.H., Rahe R.H.: The social readjustment rating scale. J. Psychosom. Res. 11: 213–218, 1967.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Mensh I.N.: A study of a stress questionnaire: the later years. Int. J. Aging Hum. Develop. 16: 201–207, 1983.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Reich J.W., Zautra A.J.: Daily event causation: an approach to elderly life quality. J. Commun. Psychol. 12: 312–322, 1984.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Samuelsson S.: Life events and mental disorder in an urban female population. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 65 (Suppl.), 1982.

  26. Persson G.: Life event ratings in relation to sex and marital status in a 70-year-old urban population. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 62: 112–118, 1980.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Landahl S., Jagenburg R., Svanborg A.: Blood components in a 70-year-old population. Clin. Chim. Acta 112: 301–304, 1981.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Cox D.R., Hinkley D.V.: Theoretical statistics. Chapman and Hall, London, 1974.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  29. Johansen G.: Health care screening among the elderly - a comparison between participants and non-participants. Scand. J. Caring Sci. 8: 169–172, 1994.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Sörensen K.H., Pedersen H.D.: Quality of life in old age. A population study of elderly in Copenhagen. Comprehensive Gerontology 2: 31–35, 1988.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Melin A.L.: Perceived functional health of frail elderly in a primary home care programme and correlation of self-perception with objective measures. Scand. J. Soc. Med. 21: 256–263, 1993.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Hendriksen C.: Preventive home visits among elderly people. Dan. Med. Bull. 39: 256–257, 1992.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Carpenter G.I., Demopoulos G.R.: Screening the elderly in the community: controlled trial of dependency surveillance using a questionnaire administered by volunteers. Br. Med. J. 300: 1253–1256, 1990.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geriatric Medicine, Vasa Hospital, Göteborg University, S-411 33, Göteborg, Sweden

    A. Grimby

  2. Department of Medicine, Section of Geriatric Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    A. Svanborg

Authors
  1. A. Grimby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. Svanborg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Grimby, A., Svanborg, A. Life events and the quality of life in old age. Report from a medical-social intervention study. Aging Clin Exp Res 8, 162–169 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03339672

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03339672

Key words

Search

Navigation