Abstract
Objectives: To identify the meaning of life as perceived by the community-dwelling elders and their predictors. Methods: A cross-sectional, correlational design was used to a 308 randomized (probabilities proportional to size measure) community-dwelling elders in Yunlin County to assess their physical and mental health status, social support, life events and meaning of life. Results: 1. The scores of "descendant of accomplishment" were higher than "personal value" of meaning of life among subjects. 2. The results from the regression analyses indicate that a combination of "social support", "psychological function", "educational level", "life changing event", and "gender" explained 66.7% of the variability of the meaning of life among the elders. Among these variables, "social support" was the most powerful predictor that explained 46.5% of the variability. Conclusions: The results of this study improve the understanding of meaning of life from the elders' perspective for service providers. Thus, appropriate programs to promote the meaning of life and quality of life for elders can be developed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 159-167 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Taiwan Journal of Public Health |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| State | Published - 04 2004 |
Keywords
- Elder
- Meaning of life
- Social support