Interview on aging • 21.07.2022"Social support promotes aging contently"

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One element of demographic change is that more and more people are reaching an older age. At the same time, this increases the number of older people who have to contend with health restrictions or even the need for care. Both of these factors can have a negative impact on life satisfaction. How do older people manage to lead an active and content life despite these limitations? A decisive role is played by the factors of vulnerability and resilience, i.e. the relationship between vulnerability and resistance, explains project member Dr. Volker Cihlar.

Dr. Cihlar, what is meant by successful and contented aging?

That has actually changed over the course of the past few years. It used to be the case that people who aged successfully continued to be physically and mentally fit and had a large social network. However, studies have shown that only a few people exhibit these three criteria into old age. Consequently, very few people over the age of 80 would age successfully.

However, since people perceive their age very subjectively, from today's perspective it is more significant how the elderly themselves perceive their health, how satisfied they are with their finances and whether they are happy to a significant extent. According to these criteria, more than 60 per cent of people over 80 age “successfully”. This subjective approach is more promising in my eyes. It focuses on the individual and takes into account that everyone has their own definition of aging happily and contently.

In our project "Resilient Life Courses and Vulnerabilities in Old Age" we are investigating the individual and social protective factors against adverse life circumstances in vulnerable people. Thus, we want to find out how elders manage to feel personal satisfaction with their own lives despite physical, mental, financial and/or social disadvantages.

What factors have a positive effect on aging contently?

These are factors that strengthen resilience. The initial findings of our project show that social support, for example from other people or state benefits, increases life satisfaction among older people. This is therefore an important factor in promoting resilience. It is especially true for those people who are particularly vulnerable. In other words, the more vulnerable a person is, the greater their need for social support in order to be resilient in the face of life's risks.

What role does loneliness play in retirement in this context?

In this context, loneliness is a social vulnerability per se whose impact on quality of life is often still underestimated, especially during the transition to retirement. Thus, living alone and without a partner, which are unintentional and fraught with suffering, can be psychologically stressful. Interestingly, our research on this topic has shown that not every partnership automatically protects against loneliness. Rather, the quality of the partnership plays a decisive role. Couples who frequently have disagreements in retirement are just as likely to feel lonely as those without a partner. Only those who live in a harmonious relationship also benefit from it in retirement and feel lonely much less often.

How will the results of your project be utilised in practice?

Our research project is ultimately intended to expand knowledge about what resources and strategies are needed to counter life risks in older age and thus preserve or increase the quality of life, competence and social participation of older people. The idea of prevention plays a major role here, especially with regard to the promotion of individual and social protective factors. Here, our research can make valuable contributions to the real world.

How will we experience retirement and old age in the future? As an experienced gerontologist, why not take a chance and make a prediction?

Unfortunately, I cannot predict what new life risks we will face in the future. In recent years, we have seen how a pandemic, a war and climate change can affect all of our lives. Basically, there were very good conditions that the elderly of the near future, that is, the baby boomer generation, would go into retirement and old age equipped with many resources. Based on that, I would say that we will see very individual and active retirees. I expect the young age up to 80 to be highly competent in many cases and equipped with all kinds of exciting opportunities.

After all, we have already talked about the fact that beyond the age of 80, the likelihood of serious illness increases. Medical progress will certainly produce new treatment options. Nevertheless, old age is the phase of life in which we are increasingly confronted with our own vulnerability and with borderline situations such as suffering, dying and death. It will therefore be all the more important to know the mechanisms and strategies that people use to counter certain life risks in old age or how they can deal with them in order to live as contently and happily as possible for as long as possible.