Quality of Life for the Elderly in Taiwan

Taiwan will become a super-aged society in 2025, and people’s concerns are no longer just prolonging life but how to improve the quality of life. We investigated the quality of life and its influencing factors on the elderly. 300 questionnaires were distributed and collected with an 85% recovery rate. A structured questionnaire with the WHO version of the Quality of Life was used for the participants. The questionnaire consisted of five major parts: demographic variables, physical quality, psychological quality, social relationship, and environmental safety. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis using SPSS22.0. The scores of the Quality of Life (QOL) were in order of physical quality, social relationship, environmental safety, and psychological quality. The education level, occupation, source of income, psychological quality, and environmental safety were important factors for overall quality of life with an explanatory power of 62.7%. The government must focus on leisure and health-related education to promote the quality of life of the old and combine the different resources for the elderly’s social participation.