TIME PERSPECTIVE AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN INDIVIDUALS WITH MULTIPLE CHRONIC CONDITIONS

Abstract

To examine whether future time perspective (FTP) is associated with quality of life (QoL) in older adults and whether this relation varies as a function of the number of chronic conditions of a person, a longitudinal study (study 1; N=479) over six months and a population-based cross-sectional survey (study 2; N=1681) in German individuals over the age of 65 years were conducted. FTP, QoL and chronic conditions (i.e., cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, and conditions of the musculoskeletal system, depression, diabetes, and hypertension) were assessed with questionnaires. Fixed-effects models (with correlated residual errors in the longitudinal study) with interaction terms between FTP and conditions were applied. FTP (study 1: β=.11; study 2: β=.23) and chronic conditions (study 1: β=-.29; study 2: β=-.28) were significantly related to QoL in both studies. Significant interactions occurred in both studies, where individuals with a lower number of chronic conditions had generally higher levels of QoL compared to individuals with a higher number of conditions; although generally showing lower levels of QoL, the later had a stronger and more positive FTP-QoL relation with higher levels of FTP being related with higher levels of QoL. The protective buffering value of having a more open-ended time perspective can be used to inform future interventions.