Predictors of Quality of Life in Older Adults: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Global population aging demands understanding the determinants of healthy cognitive aging. This study aimed to examine the interrelations among executive functions, instru-mental activities of daily living and quality of life in older adults, considering the mediat-ing role of depression. Structural equation modeling was employed to estimate direct and indirect pathways between latent and observed variables, with the inclusion of depression as covariate in a sample of 124 community-dwelling older adults from João Pessoa, Brazil. Results indicated that executive function components were interrelated and associated with instrumental activities of daily living performance but did not exert a significant di-rect effect on quality of life. Depression emerged as the strongest predictor of satisfaction with life, negatively impacting all domains and mediating the relationship between exec-utive functioning and functional autonomy. The final model explained the major variance in quality of life compared to the variance in instrumental activities of daily living, with model fit indices supporting adequacy. These findings underscore the central role of de-pression in determining the self-perceived quality of life in aging, suggesting that inter-ventions should target both cognitive and affective domains to promote autonomy and well-being in older populations.