INTERVIEWS ABOUT LIFE WITH INDIVIDUALS AGED 100 YEARS OR OLDER

摘要

Introduction: The human population is ageing. A centenarian is an individual who has reachedthe age of at least 100 years. Longevity has been associated with long-lived families and theirrelated genetic material but genes are not the entire story. The study aimed to briefly explore thelife stories and perceptions of key variables contributing to their longevity of eight centenarians.Materials and Method: While the present study involves qualitative characteristics, we haveattempted to support these aspects with quantitative data. In four towns of Samsun city, northernTurkey, interviews were conducted with eight centenarian participants. These individuals wereidentified from a population consisting of 200,000 people residing within the countryside or inmountainous regions. The visits were conducted in their homes, between the dates of October2016 and December 2016.Results: We found the ratio of centenarian as 0.4/10,000 people for target towns of Samsun. Themean age of the participants was 101.8 years, and all of them are women. Yogurt consumption wasfound to be quite frequent among our participants. A number of our participants also thought thatreligious rituals, such as worship and prayer, were effective for living a long-life and they advisedsuch practices to younger generations. the most common problems consisted of hypertension andmusculoskeletal system diseases.Conclusion: Individuals who reach the age of 100 years or more generally feel youthful andhealthy. The common secret our participants provided for reaching advanced age is a natural diet,avoiding bad habits and living in a peaceful environment.