Health status and quality of life: results from a national survey in a community-dwelling sample of elderly people Christophe Luthy • Christine Cedraschi • Anne-Franc ¸oise Allaz • Franc ¸ois R. Herrmann • Catherine Ludwig Accepted: 9 December 2014 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 Abstract Purpose To investigate the relation between age and HRQoL indicators in a community-dwelling population aged 65 years and older. Methods Data were collected within a sample stratified by age (65–69; 70–74; 75–79; 80–84; 85–89; 90 years and above) and sex and randomly selected in the population records in Switzerland. The EQ-5D was used to assess HRQoL. Analyses were conducted on the entire available sample (N = 3,073) and on the subsample with no missing data in the EQ-5D (N = 2,888), considering age, gender, education and region. Results Results of multiple regression analyses showed different age-related patterns across the EQ-5D. The pro- portion of respondents reporting no problems ranged from 51 % in the 65- to 69-year age group to 20 % in the 90 years and above age group. Odds ratio (OR) for Mobility problems increased from 2.04 in the 75- to 79-year age group to 13.34 in the 90 years and above age group; OR for Usual Activities increased from 1.76 to 11.68 and from 1.55 to 2.32 for Pain/Discomfort; OR for Self-Care increased from 5.26 in the 80- to 84-year age group to 30.36 in the 90 years and above age group. Problems with Self-Care remained low, increasing from 6.22 % in the 80- to 84-year age group to 26.21 % in the oldest age group. The magnitude of the gender, region and education effects was much lower than that of age. Conclusion HRQoL is globally preserved in older adults in Switzerland, even if substantial impairment is reported in very old age affecting mainly functional health dimen- sions. Anxiety/Depression and Pain/Discomfort did not appear to be affected by age; high rates of difficulties were reported for Pain/Discomfort but not for Anxiety/ Depression. Keywords Health-related quality of life Á Aging Á Life conditions Á Community-dwelling elderly Introduction Over the last decades, industrialized countries have wit- nessed population aging and a massive growth in the number of individuals reaching very old age [1]. With respect to these sociodemographic changes, Switzerland is no exception [2], and this country, like many others, faces an increase in life expectancy at birth, which is substan- tially accounted for by a decrease in the mortality of very old individuals. At present, these issues are of even greater relevance given that the baby-boomer generation reaches the age of retirement [3]. C. Luthy (&) Á C. Cedraschi Á A.-F. Allaz Division of General Medical Rehabilitation, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva University, Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland e-mail: christophe.luthy@hcuge.ch C. Cedraschi Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva University, Rue Gabrielle-Perret- Gentil 4, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland F. R. Herrmann Division of Geriatrics, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva University, 3, Chemin du Pont Bochet, 1226 Tho ˆnex, Switzerland C. Ludwig School of Health – Geneva, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO), Avenue de Champel 47, 1206 Geneva, Switzerland 123 Qual Life Res DOI 10.1007/s11136-014-0894-2