NDA Findings 2

Finding Synopsis

Increasing numbers of older people, higher expectations for ‘a good life’, and demands for health and social care, have led to international interest in the enhancement, and measurement, of quality of life (QoL) in older age. QoL is a subjective concept, yet most measures of QoL are based on ‘expert’ opinions. This study aimed to test a new measure of Older People’s QoL (OPQOL), which is unique in being derived from the views of older people who responded to an earlier survey, funded by the ESRC Growing Older Programme. Here we report the final testing of the OPQOL, and compare it with two existing measures of QoL in older age: the CASP-19 and WHOQOL-OLD. Further aims included elicitation of perceptions of ‘active ageing’, and identification of predictors. The study was based on over 1000 respondents to surveys of older people living at home in Britain:

1. two waves of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Omnibus Surveys;
2. two waves of the national Ethnibus Surveys;
3. a postal follow-up of ONS Omnibus respondents aged 65+ in 1999-2000; 42 of the follow-up survey respondents were also interviewed in-depth.

• Far more of the ethnically diverse, Ethnibus survey respondents had poor QoL than other respondents.
• The OPQOL had good reliability and validity in all three surveys.
• Baseline indicators of QoL were able to predict follow-up OPQOL scores in the QoL Survey follow-up sample.
• Respondents’ perceptions of active ageing were multi-faceted.
• Despite being more likely to be aged 65

A. Bowling, D. Banister, P. Stenner, H. Titheridge, K. Sproston, T. McFarquhar

• Quality of life in older age: Psychometric testing of the multidimensional Older People’s Quality of Life (OPQOL) questionnaire and the causal model under-pinning it (pdf, 469 KB)