Constructing the Community-Level Successful Aging Indicators for the Local Government in Taiwan

Purpose: This study was to construct the area-level indicators of successful aging for local governments in Taiwan and thus to optimize the health of the elderly. Methods: The indicators were initiated from literature review, and then the modified Delphi method was used to decide the appropriate dimensions and indicators. Three interviews of eight experts, who were from the field of public health, social work, health improvement and demography, were conducted. The analytic hierarchy process was used to recognize the relative importance of each dimension. After development of the indicators, we used the data from Nation Health Interview Survey, 2002 and government statistics to describe all the counties/cities in Taiwan. Results: Six dimensions with 65 indicators of the community-level successful aging were constructed. The most importance dimension is Health Status, to evaluate the elder's health. The other five dimensions included Life Style as assessing the elder health behaviors; Health Care Resources and Utilization as the adequacy of health care resources; Social Participation representing local social support resources for elderly participation; Social Environment indicating the public infrastructure of health promotion, and Natural Environment as the ecological environment. The cities of the less urbanization, located middle or southern Taiwan, or higher aging population proportion were more likely to be successful aging by applied to the 2002 data. Conclusions: The short-term policies for promoting successful aging should focus on health status and life style. In the long run, the local governments should improve the external factors through revolution of the system and social education.