Factors related to perceived health among elderly people: the Albertina Project

The Albertina Project is an epidemiological study of the medical, social and economic situation among people aged 75 years or older in Uppsala, Sweden. In this report, health conditions, quality-of-life measures and housing problems affecting it are presented. A postal questionnaire was sent to an 11% random sample (n = 959) of the eligible population out of which 706 (74%) persons responded. Nearly one-third of the elderly people could not read a newspaper with or without glasses, more than one-third had impaired hearing, 47% had some sort of mobility problem and 66% reported some form of sleeping problem. Forty-two per cent felt lonely sometimes or often and 65% were worried, in most cases about the risk of falling. In spite of this, 87% rated their health as good and 79% were content or rather content with their situation. Even though eyesight and hearing problems were common in this study, they did not affect perceived health to any large extent. Mobility problems and sleeping problems had a greater impact. The most important factors related to perceived health were activity score, contentment and mobility problems. Contentment was affected by activity score and loneliness and the latter was in turn affected by age and type of dwelling. The practical implication of these findings is that perhaps more attention should be focused on efforts to improve old people's satisfaction with their life situation rather than on marginal improvements of their medical situation.