Salutogenic Model and Use in Elderly Health

Abstract

The aging of the population is a worldwide trend. As people are now living longer, the importance of preventing disability, maintaining physical functioning and preventing complications from chronic diseases and adding life to years rather than years to live has become increasingly important. In order to achieve all these, approaches to improve the health of the elderly population have gained value. In this context, many models developed to promote health have also been used in elderly individuals. Especially in the last thirty years, the concept of health promotion has been discussed with different dimensions. In this process, explanations for a critical question such as why some people remained healthy despite the stress and difficulties, others could not, were produced and the salutogenic model was formulated. The model is a medical approach that focuses on the causes of health instead of on the causes of diseases. Specifically, the model deals with the relationship between health, stress, and coping. In health care, the salutogenic model can be used to guide health promotion interventions in healthcare practice, or to orient health care research. For this, the salutogenic model offers specific concepts, assumptions, and instruments. The spesific concepts of salutogenic model have to be specified in more detail, to be applied later to the field of health care. Although the model theoretically makes valuable contributions to maintaining and promoting health in older individuals, it is not well known in the scientific community. Based on these facts, the review aimed to explain the basic concepts of the salutogenic model and to provide information on the use of the model in the promotion of elderly health.

Keywords

• salutogenic model
• elderly
• health promotion