Psychosocial characteristics of successful agers among Filipino senior citizens in six districts of Quezon City From June-October 2017

ABSTRACT

Objectives@#To describe the socio-demographic and psychological characteristics of self-rated successful agers among seniors 60 years old above in Quezon City Philippines.@*Methodology@#The sample (N=346) was obtained from a random sampling of voluntary attendees invited to a mental health screening program scheduled in six districts spanning from June to October of 2017. Proposed psychosocial factors of healthy aging were assessed through demographics and the following scales:1)-Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test in Pilipino (MOCA-P), 2) Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale in Pilipino (HADS-P), 3) Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CDR-10) and 4) World Health Organization Quality of Life using (WHOQOLBREF). Successful Agers were defined as participants who scored themselves seven or above (:2:7) in the Self-Rated Successful Aging (SRSA) scale. @*Results@#Seventy percent (70%) of the respondents (N=238) considered themselves as successful agers. Among the demographic variables, being female and the frequency of social visits were related to successful aging. Self-reported successful agers (SRSA) had no dementia with (MOCA-P mean of 21). They were not depressed (HADS-D mean 1.8) or anxious (HADS-A mean 3.4); had good quality of life (WHOQOL mean 3.4) and positive perceived health (WHOQOL mean3.3). Successful Quezon City Filipino agers were not as resilient (CD-RISC) with a mean of 27.@*Conclusion@#Like most studies in successful aging, quality of life and perceived health and strong family support were related to self-rated successful aging in this group of Filipino senior citizens. There was no relationship with cognitive function and resilience, which may be due to the exclusion of cognitively impaired participants and the lack of a validated cut-off score for the Filipino translated resilience scale used.