El impacto de la soledad y la fragilidad en el bienestar de los mayores europeos

The impact of loneliness and frailty on the well-being of older Europeans

Patricia Sancho , Trinidad Sentandreu-Mañó , Irene Fernández , José M. Tomás
Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, (2022), 54, pp. 86-93.
Recibido el 14 de abril de 2022
Aceptado el 9 de junio de 2022

https://doi.org/10.14349/rlp.2022.v54.10

Resumen

Introducción: El bienestar es un constructo importante cuyos determinantes asociados deben ser identificados para comprender con mayor profundidad los procesos para envejecer de forma saludable. El estudio del impacto de la fragilidad en el bienestar de las personas mayores requiere incorporar los dominios físico, psicológico y social. Así, el adulto mayor frágil puede definirse a partir de la fragilidad física, junto con la soledad como fragilidad social. Este estudio propone un modelo para estudiar el impacto de la fragilidad física y la soledad sobre el bienestar de las personas mayores, diferenciando entre control, autonomía, placer y autorrealización. Método: Se realizó un estudio de carácter transversal con una muestra de 13569 personas mayores provenientes de la encuesta SHARE, para estimar un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales en el que se contemplaban los efectos de la fragilidad y la soledad en el bienestar (cuestionario CASP), controlado por el género, la edad y la salud percibida. Resultados: El modelo final contemplaba el efecto del género sobre el indicador de fuerza de prensión de fragilidad. Los resultados mostraron un ajuste adecuado del modelo a los datos y consiguieron explicar un 80.1% de la varianza de control, un 48.6% de la de autonomía, un 43.6% de la de placer y un 61.3% de la varianza de autorrealización. Conclusiones: La soledad y la fragilidad presentaron efectos diferenciales en función del componente de bienestar. Se discuten las implicaciones de dichos efectos en el desarrollo de intervenciones.

Palabras clave:
Bienestar, envejecimiento exitoso, factores físicos, factores psicosociales, personas mayores

Abstract

Introduction: Well-being is an important construct whose associated determinants must be identified in order to further understand the processes for healthy aging. The study of the impact of frailty on older people’s wellbeing requires the incorporation of physical, psychological and social domains. Hence, frail older adults can be defined from physical frailty, together with loneliness as social frailty. This study proposes a model to study the impact of frailty and loneliness on well-being of older adults, differentiating among control, autonomy, pleasure and self-realization. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 13569 older adults from the SHARE project was employed in order to estimate a structural equation model in which frailty and loneliness affected well-being (CASP questionnaire), while controlling for gender, age and perceived health. Results: The final model additionally contemplated the effect of gender on the grip strength frailty indicator. Results showed a good fit of the model to the data and could explain 80.1% of the variance of control, 48.6% of autonomy’s, 43.6% of pleasure’s and 61.3% of the variance of self-realization. Conclusions: Loneliness and frailty showed differential effects on the different components of well-being. Implications of these effects on intervention development are discussed.

Keywords:
Well-being, successful aging, physical factors, psychosocial factors, older adults

Artículo Completo
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