Active Ageing Awareness and Quality of Life among Pre-Elder Malaysian Public Employees

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jul 25;19(15):9034. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19159034.

Abstract

Increasing life expectancy has led to a global rise in late-life diseases. Quality of Life (QOL) is important for healthy life expectancy. The active ageing framework serves as a guide for policymakers to design policies that enhance the QOL of older people. This study aims to determine the association between awareness of active ageing and QOL. The Malay version of the 26-item WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was utilised along with the 14-item Active Ageing Awareness Questionnaire (AAAQ). A total of 532 participants had a mean (SD) age of 50.2 (5.9), were largely ethnic Malay (96.2%), female (52.8%), and comprised largely of low-income households (65.4%). The median (IQR) AAAQ score was 71.4 (19.1). The hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed significant positive association between AAAQ and the QOL domains of physical (β = 0.154, p < 0.001), psychological (β = 0.196, p < 0.001), social relationship (β = 0.175, p < 0.001), and environment (β = 0.145, p < 0.001) after adjusting for all covariates. Awareness of active ageing was found to have a positive effect on all domains of QOL among pre-elder employees, and thus, we recommend that policies to improve active ageing awareness should be implemented for healthy life expectancy in ageing populations.

Keywords: Malaysia; active ageing; elderly; low-income; older adults; quality of life.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aging*
  • Family Characteristics
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Quality of Life* / psychology
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education via the Long Term Research Grant (LRGS) awarded to the Malaysia Research University Network (MRUN) with the grant code of LRGS/1/2016/UKM/02/1/2 (LGRS MRUN/F1/01/2019). Secondly, this research was also funded by the Postgraduate Research Grant—Research (PG146-2015B). The funder played no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.