Healthy Aging in Place: Perceptions of Rural Older Adults

Abstract

To date, initiatives to support healthy aging in place have focused primarily on the views of policy makers, researchers, and health professionals. This article explored the meanings, experiences, and perceptions of healthy aging in place among rural older adults. Guided by a community-based participatory research approach, this study sheds light on the perspectives of rural seniors themselves. Through semistructured interviews with 40 rural older adults, the study found that rural older adults' conceptualization of healthy aging in place consisted of factors that policy makers and health professionals would not necessarily consider. In contrast to biomedical approaches, the rural older adults situated healthy aging in place within a more holistic context of health, ranging from social interaction to maintaining an optimistic mental outlook. If policy makers and researchers are to develop more effective interventions that support rural healthy aging in place, then the importance of rural older adults' perspectives, experiences, and input must be recognized.