The structural equation modeling of personal aspects, environmental aspects, and happiness among older adults living alone: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background The happiness of older adults living alone warrants attention because they are more vulnerable to unhappiness than those living with families. The present study aimed to construct and test a structural equation model to elucidate the relationship among participation in social activities, satisfaction with the neighborhood environment, subjective health status, and happiness in older adults living alone in South Korea. Methods Secondary data of 2768 older adults (605 males and 2163 females) living on their own were extracted from the 2017 Korean Community Health Survey and used in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected via self-reported questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 and AMOS version 20.0. Results The hypothetical model exhibited a good fit: χ2 = 342.06 (df = 58, p < .001), goodness-of-fit index = .98, adjected goodness-of-fit index = .97, root mean square error of approximation = .04, and nonstandard fit index = .92. Participation in social activities had a significant effect on participants’ subjective health status (path coefficient = .45, p = .001) and happiness (path coefficient = .20, p = .003). Conclusions Interventions to improve the health and happiness of older adults living alone should aim to enhance their social and physical environmental dimensions based on the participants’ various social activities and their neighborhoods’ characteristics.

Japanese national well-being survey shows that living alone results in lower satisfaction and affects other relationships, while social networking service usage is related to life satisfaction: A cross-sectional study

“…This study found that mean life satisfaction was statistically lower among individuals who lived alone, as compared with those in other living arrangements. This is consistent with previous reports [13–17], and thus largely expected, as individuals who live alone are often more vulnerable to unhappiness than those who live with their families or other partners. These findings highlight an important public health concern in Japan, where census data show an increasing number of single-person households among men and women aged 20 to 39 years, which is primarily the result of changes in marriage behaviors [18].…”

The subjective perception of the happiness of older adult residents in Colombia

“…Those who live in nursing homes far from their families and do not have social support, show more depressive symptoms, and their quality of life is lower (29, 41). The absence of depression, which this study found to be part of the happiness profile, has also been documented to have a mediating role in the relationship between happiness and living with a partner (38). A study that sought to determine the factors that influence the happiness of more than 14,000 older adults who live alone found that depression, as well as the quality of life, had a preponderant role in affecting the happiness of older adults (42).…”

“…Among the factors that determine the happiness of older adults and that have been reported with greater consistency in studies are those that are related to social support: community and friends (37), living with a partner (38) and a functioning family (39). The happiness of older adults is more likely when they have a family, participate in social activities, and feel satisfied with their neighborhood environment (38) between older people with depression, hopelessness, and low perception of quality of life and psychological well-being. These domains of support (social, friends, and family), manage to predict happiness, and this, in turn, is positively related to life satisfaction.…”

“…Quality of life and happiness largely depend on health status, and aging is a complex process with physical, psychological, and social changes, which can lead to illness and disability, and further reduce levels of happiness. An illness such as depression, for example, or a disability, can affect independence by limiting individual actions, and thus impairing quality of life, reducing the probability of being happy (35,38). Authors such as Kim have suggested that family income, depression, subjective levels of stress, subjective levels of health, quality of life, and lack of medical services influence the happiness of older adults, mainly those who live alone (41).…”

“Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been”: A path analysis of the associations between happiness and health, sleep, physical activities for older people in Abu Dhabi

“…The interconnection of health and well-being in general and happiness in particular is stressed by various studies [11,12,13,14]. Both subjective physical health and mental health have received much attention as signi cant determinants of older people's happiness [15,16]. A number of international empirical studies have concentrated on subjective indexes such as happiness, self-reported health status, and health conditions and most have reported signi cantly high correlations between them [17,18,19].…”