FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG OLDER PEOPLE IN FELDA SUNGAI TENGI Normah Che Din, Siti Faiza Ajmal, Shazli Ezzat Ghazali, Mahadir Ahmad, Norhayati Ibrahim, Zaini Said, Ahmad Rohi Ghazali, Rosdinom Razali, Suzana Shahar Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Email:
[email protected]
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INTRODUCTION • The FELDA (Federal Land Development Agency) community is a unique agricultural plantation and settlement in Malaysia – Provision of 10 acres of land for each settler – A housing lot – A monthly salary for the rest of your life + dividend of monthly sale – Annual bonuses or Durian Runtuh – Currently managed by the FELDA organization – Free to generate secondary source of income
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HYPOTHESIS • In general, they are well provided for by the FELDA organization • Their standards of living are relatively better in comparison with other rural community in Malaysia. • Therefore, it is assumed that with above average level of economic well-being and secure living conditions, the FELDA community lead a satisfied life. I-SIHAT 2013
FACTORS RELATED TO LIFE SATISFACTION IN OLDER ADULTS • Social resources
Physical activities
Financial status
Good health
Marital status Social support
Life satisfaction
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Spiritual activities
OBJECTIVE • The study was undertaken to explore the factors related to life satisfaction among older people in FELDA settlement to provide important information in planning for the health care programme for older people in FELDA
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METHODS • Cross-sectional correlational study with purposive sampling involving 162 older Malay adults of Felda Sungai Tengi • Inclusion criteria – elderly (aged > 60 years), – able to read and understand Malay questions and commands, – able to respond, speak, answer and write in Malay, – and had no severe cognitive, sensory or speech impairment, or demented. I-SIHAT 2013
METHODS •
Instruments used include: – – – – –
–
–
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the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) by Diener et al. (1985) Demographic factors – Age, gender, marital status, education level, health conditions – illnesses & access to health services living situations – total monthly income, living with whom, total household occupants functional status (measured by Elderly Mobility Scale, EMS and Instrumental Activities Daily Living, IADL), nutritional status (measured by the Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire, SNAQ; Metabolic Equivalent Tasks, MET; and Mini Nutritional Assessment Short-Form, MNA-SF), psychosocial factors (depression assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale, GDS; social support by the Medical Outcome Social Support Survey, MO-SSS, spirituality by the Spiritual Well-Being Scale, SWBS; coping by the Brief COPE, loneliness by De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale and cognitive factors (tested using the Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE; and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA)
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METHODS • Data analysis – Pearson correlation for discrete data & Kendal’s Tau for categorical data • Ethical approval was received from UKM Ethical Committee
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RESULTS:DEMOGRAPHIC DATA Demographic data Age Gender Marital status
Education level
Frequency (%) 60 – 69 years 70 years and above Female Male Married Divorced Widowed Illiterate Religious school Primary school Secondary school Others
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140 (86.4) 22 (13.6) 103 (63.6) 59 (36.4) 119 (73.5) 2 (1.2) 41 (25.3) 19 (12.5) 10 (6.6) 108 (71.1) 11 (7.2) 4 (2.6)
RESULTS: LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG OLDER PEOPLE IN FELDA 60 50.6 50
40
37.7
30 Series1 20
8.6
10 3.1 0
Less satisfied (SWLS >19)
Above average (SWLS 2024)
Highly satisfied (SWLS 2529)
Life satisfaction
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Very highly satisfied (SWLS 30-35)
RESULTS: FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LIFE SATISFACTION • Demographic data (gender, age, marital status, education level, occupation)(NS) • Health status (NS) • Functional status (IADL, mobility)(NS) • Living situations (Total monthly income, living with who, total house occupants)(NS) • Cognitive factors (MMSE, MoCA)(NS) • Psychological factors - Depression (r =-.300), coping skills (NS), social support (affectionate support, r =.326; overall support, r = .16); social loneliness (r = -.206), religious wellbeing (r = -.168) • Nutritional factors – SNAQ (r = .321), MNA-SF1 lack of appetite (r = .155), MNA-SF4 psychological distress (r = .233), MNF Screening score (r = .233)
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DISCUSSION • Older people in Felda Sungai Tengi are highly satisfied with their life. • Their life satisfaction was not related to economic wellbeing or secure living situations as hypothesized but was significantly related to their nutritional and psychological factors • Relationship between nutritional factors & life satisfaction can be explained through various mechanisms: – Aging associated aspects alter certain aspects of nutrition such as the sense of smell, ability to chew and swallow, appetite, GIT function which affects QOL – At the same time, poor nutrition and lack of physical activity can lead to lack of appetite, inability to perform ADLs, changes in quality of life, morbidity, and mortality I-SIHAT 2013
DISCUSSION • FELDA community lead a good life and good meals are routinely served in social activities and religious gatherings • Inverse relationship between depression and life satisfaction – Low percentage of severe depression in older people of FELDA which indicates that most of them are satisfied with their life (Norhayati et al. 2013). – Those who are depressed at the same time are lonely because they tend to withdraw from social interaction
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DISCUSSION • Inverse relationship between religious well-being and life satisfaction – in contrast with a study by Lee et al. (2003). – Participants scored low on both spiritual dimensions. The low score on religious well-being indicates the humbleness felt by the elderly FELDA and that they were not satisfied with their efforts to be more close to Allah.
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CONCLUSION • Life satisfaction of older people in Felda Sungai Tengi is very much related to their nutritional status and psychological well-being. • FELDA organization should take these two factors into consideration in planning for healthcare programmes for their older population.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to convey our gratitude for the KOMUNITI-2011-013 grant provided by HEIJM of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
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