The majority of the older Swiss population consider their quality of life to be good to excellent.
“As could be expected, the state of health deteriorates with older age groups,” explains ZHAW researcher Marc Höglinger, one of the co-authors of the study. Still around two thirds of the 83-to-89-year-olds consider their state of health to be good to excellent. With regard to subjective health assessment, differences between the sexes can be observed. With increasing age, women perceive their general state of health as worse than men in the same age group. While 68% of the 83-to-89-year-old men consider their health to be good to excellent, the same applies to only 63% of the women in the same age group.

Whether one gets the chance to stay healthy and have a high quality of life in old age depends not only on individual physical conditions, but also on various material and social resources. The ZHAW study shows that people with a low educational level, low income or migration background not only have a higher risk of various chronic diseases, but also poorer health behaviour and lower quality of life than average. The factor of household size also has an impact on healthy ageing.
“Individuals living alone systematically assess their own health as worse, experience pain more often and report a lower quality of life than individuals living with someone else,” says Marc Höglinger.

Roughly half of those over 55 suffer from at least one chronic disorder, the study shows. The same applies to 70% of the 83-to-89-year-olds. The most common chronic disorders are musculoskeletal disorders, depression, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes. Women and men are affected by chronic diseases in different ways. For example, women suffer from musculoskeletal disorders and depression more often than men. Men are more often affected by cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes. The fact that around 60% of the chronically sick consider their state of health to be good or very good shows that a chronic disorder does not necessarily need to result in major health impairments. It also shows that other factors can have a strong influence on people’s state of health as well.
“Although this is a pleasing result, we must not be deceived. There are many people with chronic disorders who need help,” Marc Höglinger points out. This becomes clear, for example, with chronically sick people living alone, he says. They experience more severe restrictions in their everyday autonomy and a lower quality of life as compared with chronically sick people in general.