This book focuses on varied objective healthy aging practices and interventions, explores practical applications of research, and emphasizes the role of diversity in evidence-based interventions for older adults to promote delightful aging, the subjective perception of older adults and the goal of the healthy aging movement. It also explores issues related to advocacy and accessibility through a culturally sensitive lens and evaluates factors fostering delightful aging, including mental health and overall inclusivity.

Positive aging examines older adulthood as a stage in lifespan development with unique opportunities for growth and fulfillment. Although positive aging and healthy aging are related, they are distinct concepts. While healthy aging focuses on maintaining physical and cognitive function and preventing disease, positive aging emphasizes a more holistic and ideological approach, encompassing mental, social, spiritual, and even economic well-being alongside physical health.

This contributed volume explores unique biopsychosocial issues relevant to positive aging, examining the issues from a global policy perspective, to improve the quality of life in later years. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize the focal transition from healthy aging to positive aging to delightful aging. The introductory chapter discusses the concept of delightful aging, quality of life, and the potential of various health promotion practices. The chapters that follow tie various disparate themes together focusing on current country-specific policies in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and Latin America; barriers and facilitators of positive aging; and the potential role of cross-cultural health promotional practices in maintaining the quality of life.

Translating Positive Aging to Delightful Aging: Rethinking Policies and Practices from a Global Perspective will benefit a diverse readership including academics and researchers in gerontology, geriatrics, and public health, as well as policymakers.

Kallol Kumar Bhattacharyya, MBBS, MA, PhD, is the Director of the Gerontology Program and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Idaho School of Health and Medical Professions in the United States. He considers himself a physician gerontologist interested in studying health from a biopsychosocial perspective to improve the quality of life of older adults, especially those with dementia, living in the community and long-term care. Dr. Bhattacharyya received his master's degree in Gerontology from Georgia State University, a PhD in Aging Sciences from the University of South Florida and completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Research Center at Utah State University. Kallol is particularly focused on the individualized care provided in long-term care, especially nursing homes, and investigates how regulatory oversight and resident choices in nursing homes affect health outcomes. He is also interested in the risk and protective factors and alternative therapeutic interventions for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. 

Kallol has been an active member of the Gerontological Society of America. He has several publications in well-known peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and many conference presentations. His first book with Springer, Rethinking the Aging Transition: Psychological, Health, and Social Principles to Guide Aging Well, was published in 2021, and the second book with Springer, Health Promotion in Long-Term Care Facilities: The Present Scenario and Future Demands, was published in 2025. His innovative research has won many awards in scholarly platforms, including the Gerontological Society of America and Southern Gerontological Society. Recently, he received a Victor W. Marshall Fellow in Applied Gerontology designation from the Southern Gerontological Society. He is serving on the editorial teams of the journals Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, BMC Geriatrics, PLOS One, and Frontier’s in Psychology. Finally, Kallol had extensive clinical, leadership, and administrative experience working as a family physician in India before rejoining academia.