# Quality of life in a high-risk group of elderly primary care patients: characteristics and potential for improvement

## TL;DR

This study explores how lifestyle factors affect quality of life in elderly patients at high risk of dementia, finding that modifiable factors offer significant potential for improvement.

## Contribution

The study identifies specific modifiable lifestyle factors that could be targeted to improve quality of life in high-risk elderly patients.

## Key findings

- Modifiable factors explained more variance in psychological health and age-specific quality of life than fixed factors.
- Social engagement, body weight, and self-efficacy beliefs are key modifiable factors for intervention.
- The study provides baseline data for a trial aiming to reduce dementia risk through lifestyle optimization.

## Abstract

Quality of Life (QoL) is associated with a bandwidth of lifestyle factors that can be subdivided into fixed and potentially modifiable ones. We know too little about the role of potentially modifiable factors in comparison to fixed ones. This study examines four aspects of QoL and its associations with 15 factors in a sample of elderly primary care patients with a high risk of dementia. The main objectives are (a) to determine the role of the factors in this particular group and (b) to assess the proportion of fixed and potentially modifiable factors.

A high-risk group of 1030 primary care patients aged between 60 and 77 years (52.1% females) were enrolled in “AgeWell.de,” a cluster-randomized, controlled trial. This paper refers to the baseline data. The multi-component intervention targets to decrease the risk of dementia by optimization of associated lifestyle factors. 8 fixed and 7 modifiable factors potentially influencing QoL served as predictors in multiple linear regressions.

The highest proportion of explained variance was found in psychological health and age-specific QoL. In comparison to health-related QoL and physical health, the modifiable predictors played a major role (corr. R2: 0.35/0.33 vs. 0.18), suggesting that they hold a greater potential for improving QoL.

Social engagement, body weight, instrumental activities of daily living, and self-efficacy beliefs appeared as lifestyle factors eligible to be addressed in an intervention program for improving QoL.

German Clinical Trials Register, reference number: DRKS00013555. Date of registration: 07.12.2017.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11136-024-03647-7.