ASEAN Senior Citizen Quality of Life Factors: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

From Europe to Asia, aging populations have become a topic of broad concern, especially in nations such as Japan, where the growth of senior citizens and lack of new births threaten national survival (28.7% of its citizens are 65 or older). As such, aging populations and their quality-of-life (QoL) issues have profound implications for public health and social welfare. Given this significance, the authors investigated ASEAN senior citizen QoL studies from English language articles published in international journals between January 2006 and December 2021. The research explored relationships and utilized non-experimental research designs, employing questionnaires for data collection. Descriptive statistics, effect size, t-tests for Independent Samples, ANOVA, and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that of the 108 identified research studies concerning ASEAN senior citizen quality of life, 33.3% had originated in Malaysia, with another 23.15% from Thailand. Quality-related research characteristics (problem identification, literature review, related research, and data collection) had statistically significant positive effects on effect size, with all variables together explaining 60.80% of the variation in effect size. From the study’s 22 assessment items, ‘The process for collecting information is clear and appropriate’ ranked highest. This was followed by ‘The population and sample size were identified and calculated appropriately’. However, somewhat shockingly, ‘The hypotheses are correct and clear according to standard research principles' was judged very poor. The study's findings serve as guidelines for further developing research related to senior citizens, ensuring continuous quality improvement. This study makes a significant contribution to ASEAN senior citizen QoL research.