Exposome Determinants of Quality of Life in Adults Over 50: Personality Traits, Childhood Conditions, and Long-Term Unemployment in SHARELIFE Retrospective Panel

Introduction: The present research applies the exposome approach for understanding Quality of life of +50 Europeans based on retrospective panel data. Our paper explores the cumulative influences of personality traits, childhood adversities, such as poor health in infancy, culturally deprived environments, poor mathematical performance, or reduced language skills, and undesired employment status along the life course on Quality of Life of +50 Europeans.

Methods: The study utilizes data from the SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe), belonging to SHARELIFE (wave 3 and 7) and from the Working Life Histories retrospective panel (N = 5884). Correlational analyses and stepwise regression analyses were applied with SPSS 29.0 version.

Results: Among the sociodemographic control variables, perceived financial adequacy significantly influenced QoL (Beta=0.372; p = 0.001). The exposome internal domain variables, three personality traits (Conscientiousness (Beta=0.241; p = 0.001), Extraversion (Beta=0.202; p = 0.001), and Openness (Beta=0.049; p = 0.038) significantly and positively influenced QoL, while Neuroticism's influence showing the strongest predictive power (Beta=-.466; p = 0.001). In the exposome external specific domain variable, poor childhood health status negatively influences QoL (Beta=-.085; p = 0.001), as expected. Among the exposome external specific domain variables, only poor Language skills significantly predicted QoL (Beta=-.049; p = 0.001). Finally, the exposome external general domain variable, Duration of undesired unemployment (Beta=-.036; p = 0.006), negatively influences QoL. The paper highlights the cumulative impact of personality, childhood adversities and unemployment on Quality-of-life outcomes and identifies potential avenues for future research.

Discussion: The findings underscore the need for developing effective interventions that can help individuals overcome these barriers and achieve better health, financial and social status when aged.