Including Older Adults in Development Goals: Is Subjective Wellbeing the Answer? A Case Study of Older South Africans

abstract

Measures of subjective wellbeing are gaining importance as indicators of overall societal progress, yet the majority of studies come from higher income countries. This paper explores the relationship between human development indicators and measures of subjective wellbeing among persons aged 50-plus in South Africa. Using the first nationally representative population-based study of older South Africans, WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (WHO SAGE), this paper adds to a small but growing literature on subjective wellbeing in lower-income countries. Results indicate that education, socio-economic status and health are, in fact, correlated with measures of subjective wellbeing, but the relationships and strength of the relationships differ depending on the measure used to assess wellbeing.

Acknowledgements

SAGE is supported by WHO and the US National Institute on Aging through Interagency Agreements (OGHA04034785, YA1323-08-CN-0020, and Y1-AG-1005-01) and competitive grant number: R01AG034479. The National Department of Health supported SAGE South Africa Wave 1. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for providing insightful comments. Data and code available upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.