ABSTRACT

Objective: This study examined whether social participation mediates the relationships between health, activities of daily living (ADL), depression, and life satisfaction, and identified its pathway to enhance quality of life. Methods: A secondary analysis of the 9th Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA) was conducted on 646 retired older adults. A path model was used to assess the mediating effect of social participation and estimate the direct, indirect, and total effects. We used SAS 9.4 and Mplus 8.11 for analysis. Results: Participants had an average age of 75.98 years, and 63.86% were male. Social participation had the strongest mediating effect between health status and life satisfaction (β = 0.859, 95% confidence interval [CI; 0.11, 0.60], p < 0.001). The indirect effects were 0.536 for ADL (95% CI [0.30, 0.85], p < 0.001) and -0.485 for depression (95% CI [-0.75, -0.26], p < 0.001). Thus, social participation was found to have a significant mediating effect on the impact of key variables. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the health status, ADL, and depression of retired older adults can effectively maximize life satisfaction through social participation. Therefore, this study provides basic data for developing interventions to enhance retired seniors' quality of life through social participation and may support Korean welfare policies promoting successful aging among older adults.