Associations of Meaning of Home and Housing-Related Control Beliefs with Changes in Symptoms and Quality of Life: A Prospective Study Among Younger-Old Adults in Sweden

Feeling in control of one's environment and perceiving one's home as meaningful have been found to be associated with health and well-being among older adults. As longitudinal studies of younger-old adults are lacking, this study aimed to investigate whether this association exists over time among older adults around retirement age. Longitudinal data from a random cohort of community-dwelling older adults, ages 65-76 years (N = 329), was collected from 2010 to 2016. The Meaning of Home questionnaire and the Housing-Related Control Beliefs questionnaire assessed perceived housing. Outcomes were change scores from a symptom checklist and the Short-Form 12, analyzed by stepwise general linear regression. Housing-related control beliefs were not significantly associated with changes in quality of life. Meaning of home was significantly associated with changes in gastrointestinal (B = 0.039, p = 0.031) and metabolism (B = 0.084, p < 0.000) symptoms. However, there were inconsistencies among the subscales of the instrument, as some were negatively associated and others were positively associated with the changes. The findings suggest that the perceived home environment does not prevent symptoms or maintain or improve quality of life among older adults around retirement age. This finding is of importance to further develop theoretical understandings of the environments' role in healthy aging.