Influence of healthy lifestyle behaviors on life satisfaction in the aging population of Thailand: a national population-based survey

BACKGROUND: Understanding the influence of healthy lifestyle behaviors on population-level life satisfaction is few known in the aging population, especially in low- and middle-income countries in Asia. The objective of our study was to analyse the association of lifestyle behaviors with life satisfaction in a nationally-representative sample of older persons in Thailand. METHODS: The sample was obtained from a baseline phase of a nationally-representative, longitudinal survey of the Thai population. The study employed a multistage sampling technique to recruit study participants age 60 years or older from the five geographic regions of Thailand. In this study, 1460 adults age 60 years or older from 3670 households successfully completed face-to-face interviews by trained staff with a structured questionnaire. Information on self-reported life satisfaction, lifestyle behaviors, and sociodemographic characteristics were collected via survey questionnaire. Life satisfaction was assessed using the Scale with Life Satisfaction (SWLS) [1 to 7] response. Binary logistic regression analysis was used in investigating the association between lifestyle behaviors and life satisfaction. RESULTS: The median age of the participants was 68.1 (60–93 years). The overall mean life satisfaction score was 24.2 ± 5.6. Regular physical activity (at least 30 min per day) and sufficient fruit and vegetable (FV) intake (at least 400 g per day) were significantly associated with older people’s life satisfaction (p ≤ 0.001 and p ≤ 0.10, respectively) after controlling all sociodemographic variables. Participants who had regular physical activity were 1.7 times as likely to be satisfied as those with less physical activity (95% CI 1.284–2.151). Participants with sufficient daily FV intake were 1.3 times as likely to be satisfied with life as those with insufficient daily FV (95% CI 0.994–1.723). Life satisfaction score also differed significantly by sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, marital status, educational attainment) and presence of chronic disease. CONCLUSIONS: To improve the life satisfaction of older persons, taking into account sociodemographic characteristics of the population and absence of chronic disease, the need for promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviors, especially regular physical activity and sufficient FV intake, must be recommended. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-020-10032-9.