Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This qualitative research was part of a project titled “Life Happiness of Elderly People in the Northeast, Thailand” which aimed to explore happiness and factors associated to happiness of urban older person perspectives. A total of eighteen elderly people who were sixty years old and up participated in this study. Data were collected by in-depth interview with elderly people individually. Four focus group discussions were performed separately between male and female who had and didn’t have illness. Data analysis were done simultaneously with data collection by performing content analysis. Result show that happiness from urban elderly people perspectives was life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was a dynamic concept of four components which related to each other: 1) satisfaction with health, 2) satisfaction with family, 3) satisfaction with the relationship with society, and 4) satisfaction with economic status. Factors associated with life satisfaction were: 1) work competency, 2) accessible to health care service, 3) family support, and 4) social support. It was suggested that promoting happiness of urban elderly people need to have all four aspects of life satisfaction. The more happiness with all four aspects they get, the more life satisfaction they will have. Elderly people who have illness can be satisfied with life if they get support from families or societies.