earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to examine the demographic, economic, and psychological factors that influence the quality of life (QoL) of the elderly. The data in the ‘Survey on the Elderly in 2011’, were collected from The Ministry of Health & Welfare and the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. The samples included 3,312 out of the total of 15,146 elderly people aged from 65 to 70 years. Multiple regression analysis and path analysis were used to analyze the research model. The findings are as follows. First, the most critical factor that affected the QoL of the elderly was “subjective standard of living” with other factors including “subjective physical condition level”, “depression”, “total annual income”, “the number of chronic disease”, “self-esteem”, “economic supports from their adult children”, “education level”, “living with their adult children or not”, “sex”, and “home ownership”, in that order. Second, based on the path analysis results, the QoL of the elderly was influenced by “subjective physical condition level”, “subjective standard of living”, “depression”, “self-esteem”, “total annual income”, “education level”, and “the number of chronic disease”, in that order. In particular, “depression” had a negative direct effect and an indirect effect on the QoL of the elderly, whereas “self-esteem” had a positive direct effect and indirect effect on their QoL. Third, “labor force participation status” did not affect the QoL of the elderly. However, it implied the mediating effect of “self-esteem” and “depression” on their QoL. These results show that demographic, economic, and psychological factors heavily influence the QoL of the elderly. Specifically, “depression” and “self-esteem” turn out to be mediating variables that strongly influence the QoL of the elderly. Also, “labor force participation status” does not have a positive direct effect on the QoL of the elderly but has a positive mediating effect of “depression” and “self-esteem” on their QoL.