engleski

Psychosocial adaptive capacity and survival in very old persons

Recent research of ageing deals with identification of psychosocial adaptation determinants in ageing, that were found related to longer survival in older persons. It interested us if such adaptive capacity can be found in the oldest-old persons, who are already long-lived. Research aim was to investigate the contribution of psychosocial factors in the survival prediction in very old institutionalised persons. Participants were 301 residents of 13 retirement homes in Zagreb, Croatia, 227 (75%) women, 80 years and older (average 88) at baseline, in 2008. In 2018, only information on the participants’ life status was obtained. Variables were: sociodemographic, cognitive function, subjective functioning, post- retirement activity and quality of life, measured individually at baseline, and life status variable, checked at 10-years follow-up. At follow- up, all participants were deceased (average age of death 93 years). Significant correlations resulted between longevity and more activity and better quality of life (r = .13, p < .05, both), and those between other variables (r = .13 - .21 ; p < .05 - .01) confirmed the adaptive capacity in very old persons. Observed psychosocial variables predicted 6% (p < .05) of the survival variance with more activity (β = .13 ; p < .05) and better cognitive functioning (β = .12 ; p < .05) as individual predictors of longer survival. Implications are in the planning of support for older persons’ adaptive potential, to improve the quality of their life in very advanced age, and to set a support model for prospective long-living cohorts. (Croatian Science Foundation grant: IP-01- 2018-2497)

longevity, cognitive functioning, post-retirement activity, subjective functioning, quality of life, very old persons

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