Influence of physical working capacity on quality of life and life satisfaction in old-age population of Ukraine

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine relationship between indicators of physical working capacity and levels of satisfaction and quality of life in older adults. Materials and methods. This study involved 221 elderly participants including 152 women and 69 men with an average chronological age of 67.1 years. The study was conducted at the University of Third Age (Chernivtsi, Ukraine) during the years 2019-2020. Research methods: assessment of physical working capacity, Questionnaire survey with Medical Outcomes Study-Short Form (SF-36), measurement of Life Satisfaction Index (Neugarten А.О.), and statistical analysis. Results. The degree of relationship between indicators of physical performance and levels of satisfaction and quality of life was determined in older adults. It was found that physical working capacity is moderately associated with all indicators of life satisfaction; all correlation coefficients were significant at the level α = .05. Conclusions. For this age group, among the indicators of the physical component of health, the most significant one was Physical Functioning (34.36 ± 1.8 points), and in the mental component of quality of life, the most significant was Vitality (59.34 ± 1.8 points). Among the respondents, 68.2% had low level of life satisfaction and 25.3% had average level. We found a close relationship between these parameters. Physical working capacity is closely related to the quality of life indicators such as Physical Functioning (0.664), Overall.mood.background (0.581), and Vitality (0.524).