People in their 70s and 80s are less depressed and feel better about their lives than people of the same age felt 30 years ago, according to study conducted at the Gerontology Research Center at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä in Finland.
What to know:
- A survey of current 75- and 80-year-olds in Finland shows that depressive symptoms have decreased, and they are more satisfied with their lives so far than people at the same age who were surveyed three decades ago.
- The study examined differences in depressive symptoms and life satisfaction between current 75- and 80-year-olds and people who were that age in the 1990s.
- The results showed that the reduction in depressive symptoms among current 75- and 80-year-olds compared with those in the 1990s was partly because older people today have significantly better physical and cognitive functioning at that age compared with those born earlier.
- Interestingly, 80-year-old men who lived in the 1990s said they were far more satisfied with their current lives than did the 80-year-old men of today, possibly because men born in 1910 had lived through difficult times.
- Both in the 1990s and today, the majority of older adults reported being satisfied with their current lives.
This is a summary of the article "Cohort Differences in Depressive Symptoms and Life Satisfaction in 75- and 80-Year-Olds: A Comparison of Two Cohorts 28 Years Apart," published in the Journal of Aging and Health on March 22, 2023. The full study can be found on journals.sagepub.com.
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