Strategies for living long and healthy
8
economic status and health status of the women in the four groups are shown in Table 1. The
groups did not differ significantly in age.
RESULTS
The results section presents themes identified from responses and their supporting quotes.
A summary of the points is shown in Table 2.
Positive Aspects of Aging
In order to learn first-hand about the benefits of aging, women were asked what they
liked about growing old.
Financially Independent/Healthy. FI/H women enumerated more things they enjoyed
about growing old than the other groups. They valued freedom from the responsibility of raising
a family and from working for a living. Their freedom allowed them to enjoy the luxury of free
time, as one woman illustrated, “I earned the right at my age to relax and to do things the way I
wanted to do. You’re pretty much your own boss, and that’s a good feeling.”
A unique characteristic of this group is that the women sought personal growth and
leisure by way of taking courses, extensive travel, church activities, and volunteer work. As
explained by one woman: “Leisure – all those things that I have put on hold – like taking a
course just for the fun of it. All of these things, because of old age, are available to me.” Women
felt their life experiences had made them wiser. One woman described this new level of
empowerment by saying that she now has time to “better… (her) own life.” Reflecting on her
achievements, another woman explained, “The good thing about growing old is that you can
always look back on the experiences you’ve had, the things you’ve seen, the things you’ve
done.”
Convention