IMPACT OF OLDER ADULTS' SOCIAL STATUS AND THEIR LIFE SATISFACTION ON HEALTH CARE RESOURCES

The article discusses the impact of the increasing numbers of the elderly on the social understanding of ageing (especially among physicians, therapists and caregivers). Statistics point to an urgent need to prepare the health care system for the greying population. In order to improve the quality of care for the elderly, their involvement in both treatment and therapy is essential. The misjudgments and discrimination that elderly people often have to endure puts successful ageing into question. The study was designed to investigate the quality of life among the elderly, with control groups of young and middle-aged adults. The research involved 392 persons, divided into three age groups: early, middle, and late adulthood. All the participants were asked to fill in the Fragebogen zur Lebenszufriedenheit (FLZ, the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire). The general assessment of life satisfaction among the older respondents was significantly lower in comparison to the results obtained among the younger ones (<= 35 years old). Nevertheless, when evaluated against the results obtained in the middle group, the difference was not that significant. Interestingly, more detailed analysis of the results revealed that the discrepancies in the assessment of the separate categories of life satisfaction were not very significant. The preliminary findings prove that the satisfactory ageing popularized by the "new gerontology" is not merely a theoretical category, but a real life experience. The "greying" population makes it essential to involve the elderly in the process of improving the quality of care in later life.