生涯学習は高齢者の幸せにつながる。

PLOS ONE RESEARCH ARTICLE Does lifelong learning matter for the subjective wellbeing of the elderly? A machine learning analysis on Singapore data Zheng Fang ¹*, Nicholas Sim ²* 1 Graduate Studies, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, Singapore, 2 School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, Singapore ● These authors contributed equally to this work. * nicholassimc@suss.edu.sg Check for updates Abstract OPEN ACCESS Citation: Fang Z, Sim N (2024) Does lifelong learning matter for the subjective wellbeing of the elderly? A machine learning analysis on Singapore data. PLoS ONE 19(6): e0303478. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303478 Editor: Weiteng Han, Federation University Australia, AUSTRALIA Received: July 20, 2023 Accepted: April 25, 2024 Published: June 5, 2024 Copyright: © 2024 Fang, Sim. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. Funding: This research is funded by the Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Welfare Foundation Grant, 2021, and the Ministry of Education Startup Funding (RIF1008). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Our study explores whether lifelong learning is associated with the subjective wellbeing among the elderly in Singapore. Through a primary survey of 300 individuals aged 65 and above, we develop a novel index to capture three different aspects of subjective wellbeing, which we term "Quality of Life", "Satisfaction with Life" and "Psychological Wellbeing". Utilizing both supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques, our findings reveal that attitudes towards lifelong learning are positively associated with quality of life, while participation in class activities is positively associated with all three measures of wellbeing. Although the study does not establish causality, it highlights a connection between lifelong learning and the perceived wellbeing of the elderly, offering support for policies that encourage age lifelong learning among this population. 1. Introduction One of the major challenges facing advanced economies is the rapidly aging population. Singapore, with one of the fastest rates of aging in the world, is no exception. By 2030, approximately one third of Singapore's residents will be 65 and above, and by 2050, that number is projected to rise to half of the population [1]. The aging population brings with it a host of issues such as loneliness and decreased independence, which can eventually lead to self-harm. For instance, elderly suicide has been a prevalent problem in Europe and North A