
What are the keys to successful aging?
Successful aging focus
- Exercise. Muscle mass tends to decline with age. ...
- Diet. When it comes to building muscle, diet plays a central role. ...
- Alcohol, Drugs, and Medications. Even the most physically fit of seniors is at risk of falling if they’re intoxicated by alcohol, drugs, or misuse of prescription medication.
- Social Engagement. ...
What are the five biological theories of aging?
hayflick limit theory of aging; telomere theory; telomeres; senescent cells; free radical theory of aging; cellular damage; protein crosslinking; DNA Damage
Which model of successful ageing should be used?
the lay-based, more multidimensional, model of successful ageing predicted perceived QoL more powerfully than unidimensional models and should be used to evaluate the outcomes of health promotion in older populations.
How would 'you' define successful ageing?
Successful aging involves focusing on what is important to you, and being able to do what you want to do in old age. While successful aging may be one way to describe how well we age, the concept ...

What are the components of successful aging theory?
Rowe and Kahn stated that successful aging involved three main factors: (1) being free of disability or disease, (2) having high cognitive and physical abilities, and (3) interacting with others in meaningful ways.
What is Baltes theory of successful aging?
Although specific criteria of successful aging are subject to cultural and personal values, at a general level, researchers agree that successful aging entails maximizing gains and minimizing losses as people move through life and into the period of old age (Baltes, 1987).
Who developed theory of successful aging?
Rowe and Kahn (1998) established the successful aging paradigm as a focus on three components of well-being, “low probability of disease,” and disability, “high cognitive and physical … capacity, and active engagement with life” (1998, p. 433).
What are three models of successful aging?
The Rowe and Kahn model defines successful aging as having: (1) no major chronic diseases or disability, (2) high physical and cognitive functioning, and (3) an active social life [3].
What are the 5 components of successful aging?
Its components include zest, resolution and fortitude, happiness, relationships between desired and achieved goals, self concept, morale, mood, and overall wellbeing. Continued social functioning is another commonly proposed domain of successful ageing.
Why is successful aging important?
And for us as a society, articulating what's involved in experiencing “good” or “successful” aging is important because it can help us understand what kinds of things we should focus on, to help more older adults age well, or otherwise “succeed” in late-life.
What are the two main theories of aging?
Modern biological theories of aging in humans fall into two main categories: programmed and damage or error theories. The programmed theories imply that aging follows a biological timetable, perhaps a continuation of the one that regulates childhood growth and development.
What are the two theories of successful aging quizlet?
The rate of living theory postulates each person has a finite number of heart beats. The gene theory discusses aging from the perspective of one or more harmful genes that are activated over time and bring about age-related changes. The somatic mutation proposes that aging is caused by environmental damage to DNA.
What is the best indicator of successful aging?
Emotional vitality was the only indicator of successful aging significantly associated with stress. Life satisfaction and financial status, and health status, were significant predictors of self-rated health.
What are the four main theories of aging?
These researchers have developed a fitness-based framework in which they categorise existing theories into four basic types: secondary (beneficial), maladaptive (neutral), assisted death (detrimental), and senemorphic aging (varying between beneficial to detrimental).
What are the 3 D's of aging?
These treatments are essential techniques for addressing the 3 Ds of aging—degeneration, deflation, and descent.
What is Baltes SOC theory?
According to the SOC model (Freund & Baltes, 2002), “the biological, social, and psychological opportunities and constraints throughout the life span specify a broad range of alternative possible goals or domains of functioning” (p. 643). Selection involves goal setting and a commitment to a specific set of goals.
What are Baltes key principles?
Baltes' lifespan perspective emphasizes that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, contextual, and multidisciplinary. Think of ways your own development fits in with each of these concepts as you read about the terms in more detail.
What are the components of Baltes SOC theory?
SOC suggests that older adults who age successfully employ three basic strategies to sustain themselves and grow: (1) selection, (2) optimization, and (3) compensation (Baltes & Carstensen, 1996, 2003; Freund et al., 1998). Selection refers to the judicious use of limited resources, such as energy or time.
What is Paul Baltes known for?
Paul B. Baltes was born in Saarlouis, Germany. He is credited with developing theories about lifespan and wisdom, the selective optimization with compensation theory, and theories about successful aging and developing.
What is successful aging?
Successful aging involves much more than the absence of disease. How it’s viewed also differs from person to person. It involves maintaining the highest autonomy, well-being, and preservation of one’s self and identity as possible, even in the face of limitation or loss. The following are several ways to define or measure successful aging.
Who defined successful aging?
There are many ways to define successful aging. The term was first originated by scholars John Rowe and Robert Kahn in the 1990s. They defined successful aging as freedom from disease and disability, having a high cognitive and physical functioning, and an active engagement with life.
What Are Some Real-Life Examples of Successful Aging?
Real-life examples of successful aging could mean many things .
Why is it important to stay active?
Engaging in physical activity. Whether you go to classes at the gym or need to exercise while sitting in a chair , it is important to stay as active as possible and to avoid a sedentary lifestyle. Engaging in physical activity helps one’s health and well-being in a number of ways.
How does social engagement affect health?
However, staying active, socially engaged, and living with purpose are all goals that support well-being. Research shows that social engagement has positive impacts on health, well-being, and life satisfaction.
Is success in the eye of the beholder?
Success is in the Eye of the Beholder. When it comes to successful aging, success much like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It comes down to aging on your own terms, maintaining autonomy, and quality of life. In planning for your journey through life, start thinking about what you value and how you’d like to spend your golden years.
Is nutrition important for aging?
Maintaining good nutrition is key, no matter your age. Proper nutrition as a person ages is much more significant when it comes to successful aging than people realize.
What is successful aging?
Older people often say that successful aging involves being productive, being mentally fit, and, most importantly, being able to lead a meaningful life. Pulitzer prize–winning author Jared Diamond says successful aging for him is enjoying life, being productive and continuing to do the things he is good at doing.
What are the factors that contribute to successful aging?
Rowe and Kahn stated that successful aging involved three main factors: (1) being free of disability or disease, (2) having high cognitive and physical abilities, and (3) interacting with others in meaningful ways.
What is meaningful aging?
Meaningful aging does not involve “winners or losers” in terms of longevity and health, but rather the need to focus on what is most meaningful to a person, especially in older age. Sometimes this involves not doing more to stay active but, perhaps, doing less, giving up some control over our lives, being more mindful of others and being aware of the need to forgive and forget.
When was successful aging popular?
The term successful aging was made popular in 1987, when the scientists John Wallis Rowe and Robert Kahn published an influential book entitled Successful Aging. Rowe and Kahn stated that successful aging involved three main factors: ...
How many people can achieve successful aging?
Researchers have offered over 80 unique and different operational definitions of successful aging, with some estimating that only 1% of people achieve successful aging, while others estimate that close to 90% of people can achieve it.
When does aging start?
Successful aging can start in childhood, as people develop habits and work ethics and learn to exercise and eat well. We often focus on the physical health of people as they age, and we assume that psychological well-being follows this trend.
Can you tell if someone is successful in aging?
Thus, successful aging is often something we simply “know it when we see it.”
What is successful ageing?
According to the classic concept of Rowe and Kahn, successful ageing is defined as high physical, psychological, and social functioning in old age without major diseases (5, 6).
Why is successful ageing important?
It is a multidimensional concept, and the main focus is how to expand functional years in a later life span. The concept has developed from a biomedical approach to a wider understanding of social and psychological adaptation processes in later life.
Why is multidimensional approach important in ageing?
The multidimensional approach of successful ageing could be more informative than focus on single health outcomes, such as chronic diseases or functioning (1), and therefore it can be used for understanding and promoting the concept in the populations of ageing societies.
What is cognitive functioning?
The cognitive functioning comprises perception, attention, memory, and higher functions, but indicators of successful cognitive functioning are often chosen to tap particular dimensions of functioning (28) . Depp and Jeste (11) found that 13 of 29 operational definitions of successful ageing consisted indicators of cognitive functioning, ...
What is the importance of cognitive development in old age?
Maintaining cognitive abilities and preventing memory disorders are key aims in old age (28). Hartley et al. (28) have suggested that successful cognitive functioning should be a central component of successful ageing. Cognitive development in old age differs individually (28). Longitudinal studies have shown that midlife is a critical period for the beginning of the pathology of cognitive disorders, although indicators of the disease process remain still poorly understood (29). A compensation for age-related changes, a reliance on memory, and a cognitive reserve are themes that might explain higher cognitive functioning in old age among some individuals (28). According to this, relatively higher function may reflect relatively more successful ageing (28).
Why is social functioning important?
It reflects a wish to retain a role in society and being involved with people (36) . Social functioning includes indicators of loneliness, social activity, and emotional and instrumental support given to others. For example, the participants could be defined as being actively engaged, if they have reported involvement in voluntary work, or participating in a sport, social or other kind of club (36).
Is psychological adaptation important in later life?
Psychologically well adapted in later life. Recent studies have shown that life satisfaction, purpose in life, and perception of the ageing process contributed to ageing successfully, and therefore psychological domain of adaptation in later life is an important part of successful ageing (9).
What are the three dimensions of aging?
In order that successful aging not seem an oxymoron, the concept of aging must be viewed from three dimensions: decline, change, and development.
What is considered good health in the Berlin Aging Study?
When examiners used a global definition of successful aging at age 75, 80% of the Berlin Aging Study cohort were still considered in “good health” (cognitively fit, active, and involved in life ) or in “average health” (relatively healthy, still independent, and satisfied with life).
What happens to the fear of death after age 40?
After age 40, the fear of death declines steadily (18) , and belief in the afterlife increases. After age 85, however, 60% of the Berlin Aging Study women and 30% of the men needed help bathing or showering; only one in five needed nursing-home care.
When do people die from shortening their ancestral lifespan?
Shortened ancestral longevity is a risk factor for men dying between ages 40 and 60, but most people die after age 60. Thus, Rowe and Kahn (3) have reported, “Our MacArthur twin studies leave very substantial room for factors other than genetics in determining life expectancy” (p. 28).
Is successful aging an oxymoron?
METHOD: The authors reviewed the existing literature on health in late life in order to highlight that, increasingly, successful aging is not an oxymoron.
Does depression increase in elderly?
Careful epidemiological study of the aged from multiple centers (10, 15) has revealed that there is no increase in depression among elderly individuals. Similarly, literature reviews have shown that happiness and life satisfaction are stable over the last half of the lifespan (16, 17).
CONCLUSION
According to the findings of the present study, the concept of successful aging depends on the cultural context of the community. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to this concept, considering the cultural, social and religious conditions of each society.
Funding
This study was funded by the School of Nursing and Midwifery of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (project No. IR. SBMU. RETECH.1398.019).
What is successful aging?from sciencedirect.com
Gibson (1995) stated that successful aging “refers to reaching one’s potential and arriving at a level of physical, social, and psychological well-being in old age that is pleasing to both self and others” (p. 279). In the Encyclopedia of Aging, Palmore (1995) writes that a comprehensive definition of successful aging “would combine survival ...
How can successful aging be conceptualized?from sciencedirect.com
How can successful aging best be conceptualized? One approach to successful aging is to define criteria of success. Researchers adopting this outcome-oriented approach have distinguished between criteria that are subjective (e.g., increased levels of hedonic and psychological well-being with age) versus objective (maintenance of high cognitive and physical functioning), general (comprising all functional domains) versus domain-specific (high well-being even in the presence of chronic disease), and static (has the person achieved financial security) versus dynamic (will the person be financially secure now and in the future; see Freund et al., 2012 for a review). Although specific criteria of successful aging are subject to cultural and personal values, at a general level, researchers agree that successful aging entails maximizing gains and minimizing losses as people move through life and into the period of old age ( Baltes, 1987 ).
What are the problems with the original conceptualization of allostatic load and its measurement?from sciencedirect.com
One of the problems with the original conceptualization of allostatic load and its measurement is that the components are not organized and categorized with regard to what each measure represents in the cascade of events that lead from allostasis to allostatic load. Nor is there any suggested organization in choosing those original measures that would facilitate systematically relating measures to specific disease outcomes or systematically adding new measures. Allostasis and allostatic load are concepts that are mechanistically based and only as good as the information about mechanisms that lead to disease.
What is the challenge of aging?from pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Substantial increases in the relative and absolute number of older persons in our society pose a challenge for biology , social and behavioral science , and medicine. Successful aging is multidimensional, encompassing the avoidance of disease and disability, the maintenance of high physical and cognit …
What is the goal of aging?from sciencedirect.com
Ultimately, the goal of successful aging is to maintain an optimal QOL for as long as possible. QOL refers to the overall well-being experienced by an individual. QOL is inherently subjective in the sense that what is deemed important for one person can be very different for another. Yet in the broadest terms QOL is determined by the positive and negative of one's life. Even though the values attached to specific factors that contribute to QOL experience vary across people, several common elements contribute to life satisfaction for most people, including physical and emotional health, the family and social network, employment and other activities perceived as being meaningful and rewarding for the individual, wealth and financial security, environment, and for some people, religious beliefs.
What does Havighurst say about aging?from sciencedirect.com
Havighurst (1961) says that successfully aging individuals add life to their years and get considerable satisfaction from life. Ryff (1989) defines successful aging as positive or ideal functioning related to developmental work over the life course.
Why is IoT important for older adults?from sciencedirect.com
When these IoT systems, devices, and applications are used by older adults or their caregivers, it may enable them to make more time-relevant decisions about health and healthcare needs, as well as have increased control over their living and social environments —which should theoretically enhance independent living ( Cotten et al., 2017 ). They can also be used to alert caregivers and social ties when activity levels change. However, privacy and security concerns are still an issue as recent media reports indicate some of these connected devices may gather data that users are not aware they are gathering.
What is successful ageing?
Short abstract. A definition of successful ageing needs to include elements that matter to elderly people. The substantial increases in life expectancy at birth achieved over the previous century, combined with medical advances, escalating health and social care costs, and higher expectations for older age, have led to international interest in how ...
What are the implications of successful ageing?
Biomedical research has developed to include the investigation of biological pathways to unsuccessful ageing (impaired mental and physical functioning, including immunological and genetic markers), although the current policy focus is on disease prevention and health promotion for achieving successful ageing. Most behavioural actions for successful ageing continue to promote health related behaviours and engagement in cognitively stimulating activities. Indeed, on the basis of the Landmark Harvard study of adult development, Vaillant argued that successful ageing is less dependent upon genetic predisposition than previously thought.4
What is the difference between sociopsychological and biomedical approaches?
While the biomedical model emphasises absence of disease and the maintenance of physical and mental functioning as the keys to ageing successfully, sociopsychological models emphasise life satisfaction, social participation and functioning, and psychological resources, including personal growth.
What are the psychological resources of aging?
Suggested psychological resources for successful ageing include a positive outlook and self worth, self efficacy or sense of control over life, autonomy and independence, and effective coping and adaptive strategies in the face of changing circumstances . For example, when some activities are curtailed (say, because of ill health) strategies need to be activated to find new activities and to maximise one's reserves.17Successful ageing is seen as a dynamic process, as the outcome of one's development over the life course,18and as the ability to grow and learn by using past experiences to cope with present circumstances while maintaining a realistic sense of self.
What are the main themes emerging from the theoretical literature?
The main themes emerging from the theoretical literature reflected psychosocial or biomedical approaches, or combinations of these (see box). There was some overlap with lay views; although the latter were more comprehensive and multidimensional.
What is continued social functioning?
Continued social functioning is another commonly proposed domain of successful ageing. It encompasses high levels of ability in social role functioning, positive interactions or relationships with others, social integration, and reciprocal participation in society.16.
What is the most common domain of successful ageing?
Satisfaction with one's past and present life has been the most commonly proposed definition of successful ageing, and is also the most commonly investigated.15Its components include zest, resolution and fortitude, happiness, relationships between desired and achieved goals, self concept, morale, mood, and overall wellbeing. Continued social functioning is another commonly proposed domain of successful ageing. It encompasses high levels of ability in social role functioning, positive interactions or relationships with others, social integration, and reciprocal participation in society.16
What is harmonious aging?
Although not explicit, these authors rely on tenets of a life course perspective to elucidate harmonious aging, acknowledging contextual influences on individuals’ interpretations and achievement of balance in later life . Notably, North American views of social engagement depend more on physical function (which is needed to provide practical support) and that engagement and productivity are defined in capitalist terms in Rowe and Kahn’s SA model (Dillaway & Byrnes, 2009).
How do age stereotypes affect health?
They found that holding negative age stereotypes prior to older adulthood predicted cardiovascular episodes later in life, whereas possessing positive age stereotypes provided future protection against such events. In addition to shaping stereotypes, historical conditions influence the mechanisms through which stereotypes are perpetuated, as is the case with social media technology today (Levy, Chung, Bedford, & Navrazhina, 2014).
How do early experiences affect later life outcomes?
The timing of exposure or the event may yield powerful consequences for subsequent development, illustrated by principle of timing of Elder and colleagues (2003), and may affect the efficacy of later interventions (Berkman, 2009). Other life situations contribute to risks that build over time and gain influence in shaping later outcomes. Cumulative exposure operates differently from processes noted in the first, sensitive period model, but it also leads to outcomes that are deeply embedded in individuals’ lived experience and not easily modified. Finally, early conditions and events may influence later outcomes indirectly by shaping intermediate life situations, conditions, and role s that subsequently affect later-life outcomes. Unlike developmental consequences resulting from the two process models described previously, adult outcomes resulting from this type of “social trajectory model” (Berkman, 2009) may be resolved by altering the intermediate situations that create proximal risk (Berkman et al., 2011).
What is heterogeneity in development?
Heterogeneity in development is another issue emphasized in a life course perspective. Although Rowe and Kahn’s model allows for varying degrees of SA as defined by the model’s three main components, it overlooks heterogeneity resulting from self-rated, subjective success in aging (Romo et al., 2013). This issue of heterogeneity in aging experiences also is tied to historical time. For example, diversity among U.S. elders and their aging experiences is epitomized by the Hispanic and Latino populations, which will continue to grow in proportion and significance within the aging population (Hilton, Gonzalez, Saleh, Maitoza, & Anngela-Cole, 2012). Health inequalities may contribute negatively to the aging experiences of these groups (Villa, Wallace, Bagdasaryan, & Aranda, 2012). As increasingly diverse perceptions and experiences characterize the aging population, we must avoid marginalizing differences and formulate dynamic, inclusive conceptualizations of SA.
How does childhood affect adult health?
Several life course studies demonstrate how adult health is significantly shaped by childhood vulnerability or risk exposure. The Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study revealed that exposure to inadequate maternal nutrition during World War II heightened the risk of coronary artery disease in adulthood among cohorts born during that period (Painter et al., 2006). Similarly, Brandt, Deindl, and Hank’s (2012)multination analysis indicated that economic disadvantage in childhood significantly predicted SA classifications in adulthood (using criteria like those of Rowe and Kahn). These classifications differed from those predicted by respondents’ current socioeconomic status alone. Additionally, Schafer and Ferraro (2012)assessed the impact of childhood influences (e.g., parental abuse) and concurrent adult factors (e.g., smoking) on “disease free” status in old age. These two sets of influences were of comparable strength in predicting this late-life criterion.
What is the life course perspective?
A life course perspective views aging as a life-span phenomenon and recognizes developmental influences that are launched prior to birth. Among these early influences are genetics, which Rowe and Kahn (1987)also acknowledge as important to aging outcomes. Additionally, environmental conditions and risks (e.g., poverty) are transmitted across generations in a family and ultimately affect development and aging (Ferraro, Pylypiv Shippee, & Schafer, 2009). Consideration of such factors is critical to understanding late-life outcomes, developmental potential, and the effectiveness of interventions targeted at negative outcomes.
Why is historical time important?
An exception is work by Dillaway and Byrnes (2009)that analyzed the historical and sociopolitical context when Rowe and Kahn’s model emerged. Neglect of historical time is critical because it puts theorists at risk of formulating and promoting definitions and operationalizations of SA that are historically bound and may quickly become inappropriate. If the SA construct is to guide health policy and programming, the impact of historical time on aging must be considered.
What is successful aging?from sciencedirect.com
Gibson (1995) stated that successful aging “refers to reaching one’s potential and arriving at a level of physical, social, and psychological well-being in old age that is pleasing to both self and others” (p. 279). In the Encyclopedia of Aging, Palmore (1995) writes that a comprehensive definition of successful aging “would combine survival ...
How can successful aging be conceptualized?from sciencedirect.com
How can successful aging best be conceptualized? One approach to successful aging is to define criteria of success. Researchers adopting this outcome-oriented approach have distinguished between criteria that are subjective (e.g., increased levels of hedonic and psychological well-being with age) versus objective (maintenance of high cognitive and physical functioning), general (comprising all functional domains) versus domain-specific (high well-being even in the presence of chronic disease), and static (has the person achieved financial security) versus dynamic (will the person be financially secure now and in the future; see Freund et al., 2012 for a review). Although specific criteria of successful aging are subject to cultural and personal values, at a general level, researchers agree that successful aging entails maximizing gains and minimizing losses as people move through life and into the period of old age ( Baltes, 1987 ).
What are the problems with the original conceptualization of allostatic load and its measurement?from sciencedirect.com
One of the problems with the original conceptualization of allostatic load and its measurement is that the components are not organized and categorized with regard to what each measure represents in the cascade of events that lead from allostasis to allostatic load. Nor is there any suggested organization in choosing those original measures that would facilitate systematically relating measures to specific disease outcomes or systematically adding new measures. Allostasis and allostatic load are concepts that are mechanistically based and only as good as the information about mechanisms that lead to disease.
What is the challenge of aging?from pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Substantial increases in the relative and absolute number of older persons in our society pose a challenge for biology , social and behavioral science , and medicine. Successful aging is multidimensional, encompassing the avoidance of disease and disability, the maintenance of high physical and cognit …
What is the goal of aging?from sciencedirect.com
Ultimately, the goal of successful aging is to maintain an optimal QOL for as long as possible. QOL refers to the overall well-being experienced by an individual. QOL is inherently subjective in the sense that what is deemed important for one person can be very different for another. Yet in the broadest terms QOL is determined by the positive and negative of one's life. Even though the values attached to specific factors that contribute to QOL experience vary across people, several common elements contribute to life satisfaction for most people, including physical and emotional health, the family and social network, employment and other activities perceived as being meaningful and rewarding for the individual, wealth and financial security, environment, and for some people, religious beliefs.
What is the Meredith Troutman-Jordans theory of successful aging?from nursingtermpapers.com
These are active independence beneficial contribution to society and others having comfort resources freedom having health having a positive perspective and coping a relationship with God and relationships with other people (Troutman-Jordan & Staples 2014).
What does Havighurst say about aging?from sciencedirect.com
Havighurst (1961) says that successfully aging individuals add life to their years and get considerable satisfaction from life. Ryff (1989) defines successful aging as positive or ideal functioning related to developmental work over the life course.

What Is Known About Successful Aging
A Prospective Study of Successful Aging
- In 1948 the World Health Organization defined health not as the absence of illness but as the presence of well-being—physical, mental, and social (22). In order to offer a heuristic model of successful aging for the 21st century, we shall draw on the Study of Adult Development at Harvard University, which prospectively followed two socially diverse...
Method
- The college cohort in the study included 268 Harvard sophomores selected for physical and mental health circa 1940 (29, 30). The socially disadvantaged core-city cohort included 456 nondelinquent schoolboys with a mean IQ of 95 and a mean education of 10 years (31, 32). The details of the study have been well described in previous reports (33–37). Independent predicto…
Results
- In order to assess the predictors of successful aging, we needed relatively complete data sets at age 50. By that point, the college cohort had shrunk from 268 to 237 because of 12 deaths (six killed in action in World War II) before age 45 and 19 withdrawals. The core-city cohort had shrunk from 456 to 332 because of 33 deaths before age 45 and 91 men who had withdrawn or had inc…
Discussion
- Although the narrowness of our cohorts limits generalization, the data are offered in a spirit of a heuristic schema of successful aging for the new millennium. The intent is not to test a specific hypothesis as much as to offer a testable model for successful aging and to highlight solutions to problems that have compromised prior studies. First, a major problem in understanding the rele…