Taiwanese Elders: Successful Aging and Physical Activity

The purpose of this study was to investigate the description and understanding of successful aging from Taiwanese elders’ perspective. Science and technology are changing with each passing day, influencing the current lifestyle of human beings. New technologies make people’s daily lives easier, and positively prolong the life of human beings. New technologies also replace activities that require physical labor. These technologies reduce physical activity and increase productivity. The result is not only flourishing economics but also a gradual reduction in human physical activity. However, the phenomenon of social aging still exists and is a universal phenomenon. The problems of aging have appeared gradually and are worldwide. The purpose of this study was to investigate the description and understanding of successful aging from Taiwanese elders’ perspective. Elders were defined as Taiwanese men and women 65 years of age and older. This study examined how elders’ understanding of successful aging was related to physical activity and made recommendations based on the results of the study. In this qualitative study, the researcher used the five categories (activity of seeing and hearing, pursuing further education and study, activity of art, exercise, and travel and vacation) to do face-to-face interviews of twenty elders from Chang-Hua County in Taiwan. The researcher used a semi-structured set of interview questions. These questions were structured to enable the researcher to understand how elders understand the meaning of successful aging, and to gain information about their thoughts. These twenty participants of interviews included 12 males and 8 females. Based on research findings, Taiwanese elders identified the following factors as critical to successful aging: (a) health, (b) independence and self-assertion, (c) harmonious family, (d) social activity, and (e) understanding aging