Abstract
Understanding older adults perceptions of health and adaptation processes to ageing can allow for more culturally aligned services and better targeted care. The aim of this exploratory qualitative study was to examine older adults perceptions of physical, psychological and social health and further understand the processes of adaptation and self-management of these health perceptions. Semi-structured in depth interviews (IDI) were conducted with ethnically diverse older adults in Singapore, aged 60 and above. Participants were asked open ended questions about their physical health, psychological health and their current social health and relationships. They were also asked methods of adaptation to these age related changes. In total, forty participants were interviewed. A thematic analysis identified five main themes when exploring perceptions of physical, psychological and social health. These included; 1) Slowing down 2) Relationship harmony 3) Financial harmony 4) Social connectedness and 5) Eating together. Adaptation and self-management of these health perceptions included six additional themes; 1) Keep moving 2) Keep learning; where continued self-determination and resilience was a key method in adapting to negative thoughts about declining physical health 3) Adopting avoidant coping behaviours 4) ‘It feels good to do good’; where finding meaning in life was to help others 5) ‘Power of Prayer’; which highlighted how older adults relegated responsibilities to a higher spiritual power 6) Social participation; which included engaging in community and religious social activities that all contributed to self-management of older adults psychological health and social health. In conclusion, our study highlighted specific cultural nuances in older adults perceptions of health, particularly psychological and social health. These findings can help develop more targeted intervention programmes and better methods of measuring older adults health, which can assist with the global ageing phenomena.
Highlights
The worldwide shift in the epidemiology of ageing has created global phenomena where we will soon have a higher prevalence of older people than children and more people at extreme old age than ever before
Despite older adults suffering from multiple health conditions they associated their ability to engage in physical exercise or in social activities as a positive step towards being healthy and what would be considered as ageing successfully
In summary our findings showed how perceptions of physical, psychological and social health was dominated by the importance placed on harmony and social connectedness with others
Summary
The worldwide shift in the epidemiology of ageing has created global phenomena where we will soon have a higher prevalence of older people than children and more people at extreme old age than ever before. The UN report highlighted that in Eastern and South East Asia the ageing population will grow from 261 million in 2019 and to 573 million persons aged 65 years or over by 2050, with the largest increase foreseen in the Republic of Korea followed by Singapore (United Nations 2019: 7). This means Eastern and South-Eastern Asia will be home to the largest share (37%) of the world’s older population in 2019 and this is expected to remain so in 2050. With this increasing prevalence, optimising older adults health in Asia is at the core of striving towards improving the quality of life of this older population
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
