Effects of anxiety and dissatisfaction with outings on older adults’ well-being: Differences according to age and IADL

Introduction: To reduce the psychological burden of outings is vital for older adults in rapidly increasing aging cities such as Tokyo, Japan. This study aimed to clarify the effects of anxiety and dissatisfaction with outings (ADO) on older adults’ well-being and identify the differences according to age and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Methods: A questionnaire survey was administered to older adults living in Tokyo, Japan, in September and October 2022 (n = 1,504). Results: This study defined that four factors represent ADO among older adults: “troublesomeness,” “no purpose,” “travel anxiety,” and “COVID-19 influences”. We hypothesized that these four latent variables influence older adults’ life satisfaction (LS) and that LS affects SWLS using SEM. The analysis revealed that all latent variables of ADO negatively affected LS. “Travel anxiety” had the most significant negative impact on LS, followed by “troublesomeness” and “no purpose.” The effects of COVID-19 on LS were minor. Next, this study divided older adults into four groups based on age and IADL and compared them using multigroup analysis. The analysis revealed that the older-inactive group and other groups differed. In the other three groups, only “travel anxiety” was associated with LS, and people with “travel anxiety” had lower LS. However, in the older-inactive group, “travel anxiety” was not associated with LS, and only “troublesomeness” was associated with LS: People who felt troublesomeness had low LS. Conclusions: It is crucial to ensure a living environment that supports older adults' outings to care their healthy life expectancy. A system should be created that makes it easier for older adults to use public transportation services such as buses and trains. It is essential to connect the various services within the community and function synergistically, such as medical, nursing care and park.