Healthy Aging Research Paper

Healthy Aging through Active Living
Aging is a gradual process of biopsychosocial change over the course of time (Touhy et al, 2013). In simple words it is a natural process of becoming old. According to Health Canada, healthy aging “is a life-long process of optimizing opportunities for improving and preserving health and physical, social and mental wellbeing, independence, quality of life and enhancing successful life-course transition” (2002, p. 6). It means healthy aging is not just the absence of diseases and disabilities in older age, rather it means living a joyful life being mentally, physically, socially and spiritually active.
Characteristics of Nepali society are unique. Unlike nuclear family system in Canada, joint family system

Being more specific, I live nearby the major intersection of King Street and Jameson Avenue. This area is populated with overwhelming number of immigrants from various countries of Asia, South America, Africa and Europe. Majority of them are from Tibetan background. So far I know there are only fifteen Nepalese families in this neighborhood. Among them Ghimire family is one, who immigrated to Canada in 2009. In this paper, I am going to analyze my observation about Mrs. Ghimire, a 78 years old widow woman, who came to Canada in 2011 and is living with her son, daughter-in-law and two grand children in a two-bed room rented apartment. She was sponsored to Canada by her son after her husband passed away in 2010. She is a religious Hindu woman. I know her from the first day when she came to

Ghimire’s entire performances, ‘activity theory’, under the sociological theory, is applied in her case. Sociological theory of aging attempts to explain and predict changes in roles and relationship in middle and late life, with an emphasis on adjustment (Touhy et al, 2013). Likewise, activity theory is based on the belief that remaining as active as possible contributes to successful aging. Evidence from gerontological research links continued physical activity, social engagement and productive roles to better health outcomes (Touhy et al, 2013). According to this theory, if the older people are mentally as well as physically active, they are supposed to be happy and healthy.
Applying the theory on Mrs. Ghimire, she is trying to remain physically active by involving in household chores, dropping and picking up her grand children from school. She is equally active social activities. For example, she volunteers in the temple (Hindu Prarthana Samaj). Similarly, to keep her mind active, she reads religious books and plays cards, Ludo game. She knows the way of healthy living through healthy behavior. As per Activity theory her quality of life is optimized and delayed the aging process. She laughed and said to me “I know you what everybody say to me I am look like just