ABSTRACT. Quality of life is often defined as satisfaction with a series of aspects of life. This procedure yields a quality of life score that is considered to be generalizable across groups of older persons. However, the aspects of life selected need not be equally important to all older individuals, and thus may not have any relevance to their quality of life. Data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (nationally representative cohort, ages 55-85 years, n=2254) were used to examine to which aspects of life older persons attach priority, how this prioritization is associated with availability of each aspect, and whether a discrepancy between priority and availability affects quality of life. Subjects were asked to rank nine aspects of life: physical and mental health, housing, income, marriage, family, friends, religious belief, and time spending. For the purpose of this study, the three aspects ranked as most important are considered a priority. The great majority of older persons attached priority to good physical health. Over one half indicated a good marriage as very important. The other aspects of life were a priority to one-third or less. Older persons who did not have or no longer had an aspect available, attached lower priority to this aspect. Furthermore, having no longer available an aspect that was considered important (= a discrepancy between priority and availability), was associated with lower quality of life for the aspects marriage and religious belief. A possible explanation of this finding is sought in the notion of cognitive adaptation. It is concluded that the association between life conditions and quality of life is not a linear one, but is affected by the importance older persons attach to specific aspects of life.
