Aging well? Exploring self-reported quality of life in the older Austrian population

Abstract Background The increase of life expectancy around the world sets an ageing society with all its challenges on the global Public Health agenda. In Austria, the additional years of life gained are not spent in good health, as the healthy life expectation is far below the European average. This study aimed to examine the change in self-reported quality of life (QoL) over time in the Austrian older-aged population and explore associated factors. Methods Repeated cross-sectional data was retrieved from three waves of the Austrian Health Interview Survey conducted in 2006, 2014 and 2019, including a total of 10 056 participants aged 65 years and above. To estimate QoL in this age group, domain scores of the WHOQOL-BREF were used. Trends in QoL were descriptively analysed across different age groups, sex and survey years. Adjusted Wald tests were conducted to compare means of older women and men. Linear regression models were estimated to explore the impact of age, sex, family status, education, income, residence and survey year on QoL domains. Results While WHOQOL-BREF domain scores increased over time, a steady decrease with age was observable in all survey waves. Mean scores were significantly higher in men than in women in all QoL domains and in each survey year except for the social domain. In the regression analyses, sex differences disappeared in most domains after adjusting for income and education. Factors associated with significantly higher QoL scores in all domains included younger age, higher education, higher income and living in Western Austria. Conclusions Observed sex differences in QoL seem to be driven mainly by income and education differences in the older-aged Austrian population. Following the WHO's and UN's 10-year global plan of action - The United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 - further efforts towards developing sustainable strategies and policies to reduce socioeconomic inequalities also with attention to sex/gender gap are strongly needed. Key messages • This study provides a first in-depth analysis of quality of life in Austrian senior citizens. • Younger age, higher education, higher income and living in Western Austria are associated with better quality of life.