An Analysis of Factors Affecting Future Perspectives and Life Satisfaction of Older Adults in Russia

This article aims to identify the connection between interpersonal trust, satisfaction with the quality of medical services, satisfaction with government activities, perceived health status and the future perspectives and subjective life satisfaction of older adults in Russia. The quality of life is prevalently assessed via objective indicators, but the growing body of research currently attempts to address subjective personal attitudes of older adults towards factors contributing to their wellbeing. The data was obtained through Round Six of the European Social Survey (ESS-2012), embracing subjective assessments for personal and socio-demographic variables among national representative samples of European countries and Russia. The methods used to test the research hypothesis include descriptive statistics of the sample, correlation matrices, paired and multiple regression analysis. The study shows that older adults in Russia are 10 percentage points less optimistic about the future than in Europe, while the gender balance is reverse to the European as Russia's women are more optimistic compared to men. The mean interpersonal trust among Russian older adults reaches 4.3 on a 10-point scale, which is slightly lower than in EU (4.85 points). The mean satisfaction with the quality of medical services is predictably lower in Russia, 3.15 on a 10 point scale (vs 5.11 points in the EU). The strongest correlation was revealed between health and optimism about the future. Thus, older adults with a higher perceived health status tend to be more optimistic about the future and more satisfied with life. The regression analysis results showed that the perceived health status along with the quality of medical services as explanatory variables affect older adults' life satisfaction the most. Satisfaction with the government activities and interpersonal trust are also statistically significant for subjective life satisfaction of older adults in Russia. Gender and age proved to be statistically insignificant for optimism about the future among Russian older adults. Though the analysis of several subjective quality-of-life indicators for Russian older adults provided no counterintuitive results, they still need to be continuously confirmed by longitudinal survey data. The study confirmed the hypothesis that subjective health and the level of interpersonal trust determine the life satisfaction of older adults and their attitudes towards future.