IL COINVOLGIMENTO ATTIVO E L’ENGAGEMENT DEGLI ANZIANI NELLA PROMOZIONE DELLA SALUTE

[Autom. eng. transl.] The increase in life expectancy, and the consequent increase in chronic diseases, poses important challenges to contemporary societies. Speaking of active aging means dealing in a sustainable and effective way with a series of problems - clinical, psychological, social - that can increasingly accompany the elderly. The mission is to enhance the useful contribution of the elderly to society, favoring appropriate working conditions, participation in social life and healthy and independent life. Yet such initiatives can be ineffective if they consider the elderly citizen a passive receptor and do not support their ability to become an active promoter of his well-being and health. The research presented here, part of the wider project "Growing up as an Elder", was divided into three phases: a first phase was dedicated to systematizing and mapping the interventions currently present in the literature aimed at promoting active aging; a second time was dedicated to deepening the experience of health management by the senior citizen in order to understand which conditions (subjective, relational and contextual) can favor active involvement (engagement) in this area; a final moment, finally, provided for the quantitative verification of the associative relations between active involvement in health management and a selection of socio-personal and psychological characteristics of the individual. This document summarizes the main results of the research in order to draw operational implications for research and intervention in this area.