Positive Mental Health and Well-being Among Seniors in the Central Region of Malaysia

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-425-9_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Aging; Mental Health; Mental Well-Being; Positive Aging; Seniors

Abstract

The number of elderly people is increasing globally, and Malaysia officially became an aging nation in 2020. While significant efforts have been made to ensure the welfare, physical health, and residential facilities for this segment of society, there is a lack of concerted effort in determining their mental well-being. Mental well-being is a crucial aspect of overall well-being since an individual’s mental activity plays a vital role in achieving a balanced state of well-being. Nonetheless, plans and discussions on the elderly have commonly focused on the societal burden of their longevity in terms of health and economics. Besides, the public commonly regards the elderly as a non-contributing segment, particularly from an economic standpoint. In addressing this, a multidimensional model that includes various indicators is needed to promote positive aging. Therefore, this research intends to identify the factors that contribute to the mental well-being of the elderly by targeting respondents from the Central Region of Malaysia through purposive sampling. The mental well-being of the participants was assessed by the structured WHO Quality of Life questionnaire, while factors related to positive aging were measured based on the Self-Determination Theory. A total of one hundred structured questionnaires were administered, with 89 deemed usable for analysis. The collected data were analysed using SPSS version 30, revealing that only competence and autonomy significantly influence mental health.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Wan Hasmat Wan Hasan
AU  - Fariha Aiza Ramly
AU  - Afzan Nor Talib
AU  - Nur Hidayah Zaini
AU  - Rachel Samuel
AU  - Farah Nadzirah Jamrus
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/05/22
TI  - Positive Mental Health and Well-being Among Seniors in the Central Region of Malaysia
BT  - Proceedings of International Conference on Governance, Management & Social Innovation (ICGMSI 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 104
EP  - 116
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-425-9_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-425-9_9
ID  - Hasan2024
ER  -