Jongeneelen M E, Wieringa C H L A, den Elzen W P J, Langeveld K, Gussekloo J, Drewes Y M
Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Department of General Internal Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
BMC Public Health. 2025 Jan 30;25(1):383. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-21458-4.
Vitality is often mentioned in the context of successful ageing, however, there is still no consensus on the definition of vitality. Moreover, older persons themselves have yet to be involved in establishing a definition of vitality.
To explore and describe how older persons define vitality, how they experience vitality, and what influences their vitality.
A qualitative study consisting of 33 semi-structured interviews with community-dwelling older persons (60 +) in the Netherlands. The interviews were analysed using the thematic content analysis.
The definition of vitality that emerged from the interviews was "vitality is having the physical, cognitive, and social capacities to do what you want to do". The important dimensions of vitality can be divided into their capacities and their drivers in life. The capacities consisted of physical, cognitive, and social capacities. Sustaining these three capacities was important for the preservation of vitality. Main drivers in life were autonomy, independence, and meaning in life. Their experience of vitality was mostly determined by the balance between their capacities on one side and their drivers in life on the other side. Furthermore, this balance, and therefore their vitality, could be impacted by their lifestyle, loss of social network, coping, and role models.
According to older persons, vitality is determined by the balance between their capacities to do what they want to do on one side, and their drivers in life on the other side.
活力在成功老龄化的背景下经常被提及，然而，对于活力的定义仍未达成共识。此外，老年人自身尚未参与活力定义的制定。
探讨并描述老年人如何定义活力、他们如何体验活力以及什么因素影响他们的活力。
一项定性研究，对荷兰60岁及以上的社区居住老年人进行了33次半结构化访谈。采用主题内容分析法对访谈进行分析。
访谈中出现的活力定义是“活力是具备身体、认知和社交能力去做自己想做的事”。活力的重要维度可分为其能力和生活中的驱动因素。能力包括身体、认知和社交能力。维持这三种能力对保持活力很重要。生活中的主要驱动因素是自主性、独立性和生活意义。他们对活力的体验主要取决于一方面他们的能力与另一方面生活中的驱动因素之间的平衡。此外，这种平衡，进而他们的活力，可能会受到他们的生活方式、社交网络的丧失、应对方式和榜样的影响。
根据老年人的说法，活力取决于一方面他们做自己想做之事的能力与另一方面生活中的驱动因素之间的平衡。
