Correlates of Successful Aging in South Korean Older Adults: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors contributing to achieving successful aging (SA) among the Korean older population and identified the strength of each factor's contribution to SA. We extensively searched 4 Korean and 3 English online databases, extracting a total of 64 studies for the analysis. Finally, 42 associated factors and 347 correlation coefficients were found, which were then categorized into 5 domains: functional, psychological, familial, social, and demographic. The psychological domain had the highest effect size. This was followed, in descending order, by the social, functional and familial, and demographic domains. Importantly, the familial domain, which has not been explored in many existing SA models, emerged as a notable predictor. This study is meaningful in terms of understanding one of the minority older populations more deeply and providing stronger evidence for developing evidence-based intervention programs for Korean older adults.

Keywords: Korean older adults; aging; meta-analysis; quality of life; successful aging (SA).