Analysis of the Elderly’s Social Participation

The purpose of this study is to identify research trends on the social participation of the elderly published from 1979 to 2023, suggest research directions for the social participation of the elderly, and propose social welfare practices and policies. For this purpose, studies published in academic journals on the social participation of the elderly from 1979 to 2023 were selected according to the PRISMA procedure, of which 712 studies were included in the final analysis data. As a result, the number of studies related to social participation has increased rapidly since 2004. In addition, most studies included both male and female elderly people and targeted generally healthy elderly people. Regarding the age range, it was found that studies with an expanded age range, such as new elderly and middle-aged elderly, were published. The studies topic is sports and leisure activities, which are continuously increasing, but social participation and social activities have been studied a lot recently. The research method was mostly quantitative research. Based on the research results, it was suggested that social participation and age standards need to be re-discussed and that follow-up studies on the social participation of elderly people in need of social welfare services is needed.