Senior Citizens’ needs for Health Communication with Family Members to Increase Happiness

Abstract

This was a qualitative research with the objectives of 1) surveying the level of life happiness of the senior citizens who participated in the study; 2) surveying what happiness most senior citizens desire; and 3) finding specialized knowledge about the needs of senior citizens for health communication with family members in order to promote happiness. The informants consisted of 1) 30 senior citizens aged 60 or more; and 2) 5 experts on health communication, nursing, new media, and digital media/journalism. They were selected through purposive selection and snowball selection to obtain informants with similar characteristics for more complete data collection. The data collection tools were a questionnaire of demographic data questions, which the researcher asked the informants and recorded the answers herself, and a set of scaled questions to assess life satisfaction. Data were analyzed through a process of building conclusions that included analytic induction and typological analysis. The data were then reduced to find meanings and relationships. The results showed that the happiness level of the samples was balanced, with approximately half of the senior citizens primarily satisfied with their lives and approximately half primarily dissatisfied with their lives. Their needs focused on speaking regularly with their children and grandchildren. Their physical need was to be able to perform daily duties by themselves without being a burden. Their main emotional need was to talk to their family members often. Their socio-economic need was to have their children take them out for activities outside the home from time to time and help cover their monthly expenses. Health communication with elders should cover 1) physical needs such as food, rest, using the bathroom, suitable clothing, a safe environment and medical care; 2) emotional needs, such as love, attention, respect, understanding, empathy and forgiveness; and 3) social needs, such as meeting up with friends and joining in religious events. The topics that family members should communicate to their elders are 1. Current diseases; 2. Age-related diseases; 3. Methods of preventing diseases for which they are at risk; 4. Ask how they are feeling, either in person or on the phone; and 5. Health topics relevant to elderly people. Younger people should not neglect to engage in health communication with their aged parents or grandparents with understanding on a regular basis so that these needs will be met and they can live a happy life.