Exploring Active Aging Experiences and Strategies in Retired Elderly Female Adults: A Qualitative Study

Population aging creates various individual and public challenges, including physical and mental health, economic challenges, and care needs. Governments’ response to population aging is active aging. Promoting successful, active aging is an international priority for addressing the challenges of increasing life expectancy. Active aging allows individuals to overcome the challenges of an increasingly aging population. Accordingly, the present study explores the perspective, challenges, and strategies of active aging in female elderly adults who retired from the education department.

The present study was conducted via a qualitative grounded theory using the data collected from semi-structured interviews with 21 retired women from the Ministry of Education aged over 65 years in Tehran City, Iran, in 2023. The collected data were analyzed using the Charmaz (2012) method. 

Data analysis revealed 49 open codes, 16 axial codes, and 4 selective codes. The four selective codes were old age challenges, achieving active aging, psycho-social retirement concern, and social neglect of older adults. The axial codes were public rejection, unavailability of facilities, interpersonal strategies, learning new skills, self-care, individual strategies, dilemmas and problems, old age concerns, unavailability of suitable urban space, and public view about old age. 

Active aging involves challenges and problems over which older adults have no control, such as the unavailability of suitable urban space for transportation, the unavailability of facilities, and restricting older adults’ activities. These problems lead to the belief in disability, inefficiency, and isolation, resulting in a vicious cycle.