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Environmental Influences on Life Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults With Multimorbidity: Path Analysis Through Loneliness in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Environmental Influences on Life Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults With... Background and ObjectivesMore older adults with multimorbidity are aging in place than ever before. Knowing how the environment affects their mental well-being could enhance the efficacy of age-friendly interventions for multimorbidity resilience. With reference to the Transdisciplinary Neighborhood Health Framework, we construct and examine a priori models of environmental influences on life satisfaction and depressive symptoms.Research Design and MethodsBaseline and follow-up data (after 3 years) were drawn from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging to identify a subsample (n = 14,301) of participants aged at least 65 years with at least 2 chronic diseases. Path analysis examined sociobehavioral attributes (i.e., social support, social participation, walking) and loneliness as primary and secondary mediators, controlling for age, sex, education, and outcomes during baseline.ResultsGood model fit was found (TFI = 1.00; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA < 0.001; SRMR < 0.001). The total effects of housing quality (rtotal = 0.08, −0.07) and neighborhood cohesion (rtotal = 0.03, −0.06) were weak but statistically significant in the expected direction. The mediators explained 21%–31% of the total effects of housing quality and 67%–100% of the total effects of neighborhood cohesion. Loneliness mediated 27%–29% of these environmental influences on mental well-being, whereas walking mediated a mere 0.4%–0.9% of the total effects. Walking did not explain the relationship between housing quality and mental well-being.Discussion and ImplicationsData supported a priori pathways from environment to mental well-being through sociobehavioral attributes and loneliness. If these pathways from neighborhood cohesion to life satisfaction reflect causal effects, community-based age-friendly interventions should focus on enhancing neighborhood cohesion to mitigate loneliness among multimorbid older adults for their mental well-being. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Gerontologist Oxford University Press

Environmental Influences on Life Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults With Multimorbidity: Path Analysis Through Loneliness in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Gan, Daniel R Y; Wister, Andrew V; Best, John R
The Gerontologist , Volume 62 (6): 10 – Jan 16, 2022
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References (122)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].
ISSN
0016-9013
eISSN
1758-5341
DOI
10.1093/geront/gnac004
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Background and ObjectivesMore older adults with multimorbidity are aging in place than ever before. Knowing how the environment affects their mental well-being could enhance the efficacy of age-friendly interventions for multimorbidity resilience. With reference to the Transdisciplinary Neighborhood Health Framework, we construct and examine a priori models of environmental influences on life satisfaction and depressive symptoms.Research Design and MethodsBaseline and follow-up data (after 3 years) were drawn from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging to identify a subsample (n = 14,301) of participants aged at least 65 years with at least 2 chronic diseases. Path analysis examined sociobehavioral attributes (i.e., social support, social participation, walking) and loneliness as primary and secondary mediators, controlling for age, sex, education, and outcomes during baseline.ResultsGood model fit was found (TFI = 1.00; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA < 0.001; SRMR < 0.001). The total effects of housing quality (rtotal = 0.08, −0.07) and neighborhood cohesion (rtotal = 0.03, −0.06) were weak but statistically significant in the expected direction. The mediators explained 21%–31% of the total effects of housing quality and 67%–100% of the total effects of neighborhood cohesion. Loneliness mediated 27%–29% of these environmental influences on mental well-being, whereas walking mediated a mere 0.4%–0.9% of the total effects. Walking did not explain the relationship between housing quality and mental well-being.Discussion and ImplicationsData supported a priori pathways from environment to mental well-being through sociobehavioral attributes and loneliness. If these pathways from neighborhood cohesion to life satisfaction reflect causal effects, community-based age-friendly interventions should focus on enhancing neighborhood cohesion to mitigate loneliness among multimorbid older adults for their mental well-being.

Journal

The Gerontologist – Oxford University Press

Published: Jan 16, 2022

Keywords: Age-friendly community; Multimorbidity; Neighborhood effects; Social cohesion; Structural equation modeling

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