Association between activities of daily living and subjective well-being in older adults

Background: There is still a lack of systematic investigation to explore the exact contribution of activities of daily living (ADL) to subjective well-being (SWB). This study aimed to estimate the association between ADL and SWB among Chinese older adults. Methods: : The study included 13,010 participants from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. SWB was measured by eight items, covering self-life satisfaction, positive emotions (optimism, consciousness, self-control, and happiness), and negative emotions (anxiety, loneness, and unusefulness). ADL was divided into basic activities of daily living (BADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), which were assessed by the adapted Katz index and Lawton scale, respectively. We applied Spearman correlation and logistic regression analysis to analyze the association between different ADL and older people’s SWB. Results: : The differences in different levels of SWB among older adults in terms of gender, age, residence, region, ethnicity, occupation, living arrangement, education level, marital, economic, health status, smoking and drinking status, scores of BADL, and IADL were significant( P <0.001). Both BADL and IADL of the elderly were negatively correlated with SWB ( r =-0.137 vs r =-0.268, P <0.01). After controlling potential confounders, both BADL and IADL were independently associated with SWB. Conclusions: : Both BADL and IADL were significantly associated with SWB amongolder Chinese adults.