Introduction: Psychological adjustment in late life implies an adjustment to stress generated by: major medical health problems, widowhood, retirement, partner's retirement, parting from one's last child, friends' deaths, narcissistic prejudicies (beauty and physical strength decline, general functional decline, either insidious or sudden).
The stressful events in late life have often negative effects: unhappiness, insatisfaction, self esteem loss, isolation, general decline. The subjective perception of stress is correlated with the following socio-demographic variables: sex, age, educational level, marital status, number of children, economic status.
Objective: The subjective perception of stress is influenced by a multitude of variables including: sociodemographic, health self perception, psychosocial and personality variables. The aim of our study was to point out the impact of these variables upon subjective perception of stress in elderly patients.
Materials and Methods: Our study was conducted on 100 elderly patients aged beteen 60-84 years old free of psychopathological disorders: 30 men and 70 women, 50 patients admitted in Rehabilitation Clinic and 50 from University Hospital Policlinic. Each patient has been individually rated by: Health Self Perception Scale, Bradburn Subjective Well-Being Scale, Munsh Life Satisfaction Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Catell Anxiety Questionare, Eysenck Personality Inventory, Form A.
Based on a partly focused interview we have assessed: The major stressful events over the last 10 years, the type of reaction to stress, and the type of stress. The objective stress severity was scored based on WHO criteria from Existential Stress Inventory. The following variables have been taken into consideration: sociodemographic variables, personality variables, psychosocial variables, health self perception and stress variables. Pearson simple linear correlation coeficients were calculated estimating their statistical significance based on Student "T" test. The factorial analysis was applied on the whole set of variables.
Conclusion: The significant correlation between the subjective perception of stress and the objective stress is mainly explained by anxiety and depression. The subjective well being and life satisfaction are not saturated in any of the significant factors of the subjective perception of stress in late life. The three rotations of the factorial analysis pointed out the following independent factors: anxiety, depression and sociodemographic status with a significant impact upon the subjective perception of stress within the matrix of personality, psychosocial, health self perception and sociodemographic variables. Life satisfaction, health self perception and subjective well being are not saturated in any of the significant factors pointed out.
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