Associations with changes in life satisfaction among three samples of elderly people living at home

Life satisfaction, measured using Neugarten's Life Satisfaction Scale, was examined in three samples of elderly people in London and Essex at baseline and at follow-up 2½–3 years later. The analyses reported here relate to changes in life satisfaction. The previously reported baseline analyses showed that poor health and functional ability were the strongest predictors of baseline life satisfaction. The results from the follow-up data presented here show that the most significant predictor of changes in life satisfaction at follow-up was baseline life satisfaction. While follow-up health and functional status, social network structure and activities explained the remainder of the explained variance, this was very little. The results are consistent with previous analyses of associations with changes in psychiatric morbidity (mainly depression) and highlight the importance of initiating early rehabilitation programmes.