Quality of life in older adults according to race/color: a cross-sectional study

Increased longevity is accompanied by new social and health demands, such as the race/color social construct, indicating the need to identify the specific needs of older adults to maintain and improve their quality of life.

We aimed to verify the direct and indirect associations of demographic, economic, and biopsychosocial characteristics with self-assessed quality of life in older adults according to race/color.

This cross-sectional study included 941 older adults living in the urban area of a health microregion in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Older adults were divided into three groups: white (n = 585), brown (n = 238), and black (n = 102) race/color. Descriptive and trajectory analyses were performed (P < 0.05).

Among the three groups, worse self-assessed quality of life was directly associated with lower social support scores and greater numbers of depressive symptoms. Worse self-assessed quality of life was also directly associated with a higher number of functional disabilities in basic activities of daily living and the absence of a partner among older adults of brown and black race/color. Lower monthly income and higher numbers of morbidities and compromised components of the frailty phenotype were observed among participants of white race/color, as well as lower levels of education in the brown race/color group.

Factors associated with poorer self-assessed quality of life among older adults in the study community differed according to race/color.