Healthy aging in Vietnam: results from national representative surveys on older persons

This study constructed the Healthy Aging Index (HAI) and identified its associated factors, using two waves of nationally representative data on the Vietnamese older persons in 2019 and 2022. HAI was constructed with 22 variables reflecting various domains of healthy aging, and its measurement ranged from 0 to 100. Descriptive statistics and multivariate Tobit regressions were conducted. We found that the overall HAI scores were relatively high in 2019 and 2022 (84.05 and 83.71, respectively), indicating that the Vietnamese older persons were relatively healthy. More advanced age, being women, living with at least a child, living with a spouse, being more affluent, having higher educational level, receiving social welfare benefits, performing household chores, and utilization of healthcare services were associated with the overall HAI scores as well as each factor of HAI scores. This study also discussed policies that can be designed to enhance well-being of older persons in Vietnam, including the investment in higher educational training, lifelong learning programs for older adults, increasing pension and social welfare benefits together with enhancing healthcare delivery for vulnerable groups, and the development of an integrated care model combining health and social care.