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Old and Ill and Still Feeling Well? Determinants of Subjective Well-Being in 60 Year Olds: The Role of the Sense of Coherence

From the Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany (GS, GD, GH); the Department of Gerontology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany (AK); and the Geriatric Department, the Elisabeth Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany (H-GN).

Objective: The authors investigated the determinants of subjective well-being in a sample of elderly by applying a salutogenetic model of subjective well-being in which sense of coherence (SOC) plays a central role. The hypothesis was that subjective evaluation and SOC as a personality resource explain more variance of subjective well-being than the objective changes resulting from the aging process.

Methods: A sample of 60-year-old patients of an internal hospital, previously examined between 1994 and 1997, were once more contacted between 2000 and 2002. Fifty-six patients were investigated by means of psychometric scales and biographic interviews. Compared with the sample of the first investigation, a positive selection effect could be found for the sample of the present investigation with regard to age- and health-related variables, however, not with regard to subjective well-being. A path model formulated in advance was tested.

Results: Despite an increase in physical disability, subjective well-being remained constant for both points in time. The path model supported the hypothesis that subjective well-being at the second measurement point was hardly influenced by "objective" conditions of aging and functional impairment but was significantly influenced by the individual's subjective evaluation of the present situation as well as the sense of coherence.

Conclusions: Our results support a salutogenetic model of subjective well-being in our sample; these findings should, however, be replicated in other samples.

Key Words: Subjective well-being • sense of coherence (SOC) • empiric study • elderly

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