Adding Life to Years: Predicting Subjective Quality of Life among Chinese Oldest-Old

This study is proposed to examine the relationship between individual and socioeconomic factors and subjective quality of life (SQOL) among the Chinese oldest-old. Data was collected from the latest wave of Chinese healthy longevity survey in 2002. The sample of this survey consisted of 11,175 oldest-old who were aged 80 and above at the time of the survey. Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to examine age, gender, and living arrangements differences in SQOL among Chinese oldest-old. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to understand the influences of individual and socioeconomic factors as four groups of predictor variables in SQOL among the oldest-old. The results showed that living with offspring, having children's frequent visits, living in an institution, participation in activities, higher self-rated health, and higher MMSE scores were positively related to SQOL. Living alone, in rural areas, and having better ADL functions were negatively related to SQOL among Chinese oldest-old. Centenarians and nonagenarians were found to have higher ratings of SQOL than octogenarians. This study may provide insights on how social, cultural, and familial factors influence subjective well-being in the very old age. Study findings may have policy implications for the promotion of quality of life for older adults, specifically, the oldest-old in China.