Ageing in place: Predictors of the residential satisfaction of elderly

This study aims to clarify the explanatory factors and the extent to which those factors help to predict the overall residential satisfaction among elderly people, as one of the major elements or attributes of their quality of life. The study seeks to address the residential environment from two different perspectives: an objective reality and old people's appraisal of this reality, on the basis of a survey for a representative sample of people aged between 65 and 84 years old who live in family housing in Madrid (Spain). In the analytic process, a Principal Component Analysis procedure is applied to reduce the data set and to uncover the relationships between various aspects of the elderly residential satisfaction. In the second step, a Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was conducted to identify the overall residential satisfaction predictors and the relative importance of each one. Descriptive results show a high degree of satisfaction with each part of the residential environment (house, neighbourhood and neighbours), higher among women and the most elderly. The predictive regression model accounts for 50% of the criterion variance based on 15 factors, but the first six account for 44.8%: satisfaction with home attributes, perception of the neighbourhood's environmental quality, agreement with positive aspects and disagreement with negative aspects of the network of neighbours, the building's amenities and degree of satisfaction with such amenities.