Asian Pacific Journal of Nursing

DETERMINANTS OF MENTAL HEALTH, SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING AND LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG ELDERLY

Josephine Jojo1*, Dr. Starmine C2, Dr. Namitha Subrahmanyam3, Dr. Sheela Shenai NA4, Dr. Preethi Jawahar

josephinejogeorge@gmail.com

Mental Health, Subjective Wellbeing, Life satisfaction, Elderly

The aging populationis rapidly growing all over the world. This cross sectional study aimed to estimatethe mental health, subjective wellbeing, and life satisfaction among elderly,to identify the relationship between the research variables and to identify the association of mental health, subjective wellbeing and life satisfaction with sociodemographic variables. Data were collected from asample of 200 elderly participants enrolled by convenience sampling technique. Asociodemographic questionnaire, the brief psychiatric rating scale, the scale ofpositive and negative experience, and the satisfaction with life scale were used tocollect data. The findings indicated that 8% of the participants had poor mentalhealth, and 6.5% reported as low life satisfaction. The subjective wellbeing of theparticipants, measured on a scale ranging from -24 to 24, had a median (IQR) scoreof 9 (4, 13), and 55% of participants scored above the median. A significantnegative correlation was found between poor mental health and subjective wellbeing (r = -0.145, p = 0.040). Additionally, life satisfaction showed a negative correlationwith poor mental health (r = -0.376, p = 0.001) and a significant positive correlationwith subjective wellbeing (r = 0.206, p = 0.003). Sociodemographic variables such asgender, educational status, occupation, financial status, religion, marital status, healthstatus, bereavement history, and duration of stay with a caregiver were significantlyassociated with mental health, subjective wellbeing, and life satisfaction amongelderly (p = 0.05). The study concluded that mental health, subjective wellbeing, andlife satisfaction among elderly were interrelated and influenced bybiopsychosocial factors