Activity limitations, use of assistive devices or personal help, and well-being: variation by education.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

This study examined the associations among self-care or mobility limitations, use of assistive devices or personal help, and well-being while giving special attention to 3 dimensions of well-being and older adults' educational attainment.

METHOD:

The analysis was based on 4,456 community-dwelling older adults with self-care or mobility limitations who completed interviews in the first round of the National Health and Aging Trends Study. Path models were estimated to examine the associations among limitations, use of assistive devices or personal help, and 3 dimensions of well-being (positive affect, self-realization, and self-efficacy) for different educational groups of older adults.

RESULTS:

Self-care or mobility limitations had a negative association with 3 dimensions of well-being. The use of assistive devices was positively related, but the use of personal help was negatively related to well-being. Older adults with more education demonstrated weaker associations between assistive devices and well-being and stronger inverse associations between personal help and well-being than those with less education.

DISCUSSION:

The use of coping strategies to address self-care or mobility limitations is not necessarily associated with better well-being, and education does not seem to play a protective role once limitations develop. More research is needed to unpack population heterogeneity in the association between coping strategies and well-being.

• Authors: I-Fen Lin, Hsueh-Sheng Wu
• Journal: The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences (J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci) Vol. 69 Suppl 1 Pg. S16-25 (Nov 2014) ISSN: 1758-5368 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 25342819 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural)
• Copyright: © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].

Topics

• Activities of Daily Living
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Architectural Accessibility (statistics & numerical data)
• Disabled Persons (statistics & numerical data)
• Female
• Health Status
• Homemaker Services (statistics & numerical data)
• Humans
• Independent Living (statistics & numerical data)
• Interior Design and Furnishings (statistics & numerical data)
• Male
• Mobility Limitation
• Residence Characteristics (statistics & numerical data)
• Risk Factors
• Self Care (statistics & numerical data)
• Self Efficacy
• Self-Help Devices (statistics & numerical data)
• Socioeconomic Factors
• United States (epidemiology)