99 - Successful Aging

Abstract

The concept of successful aging is particularly important for women. Women have a longer life expectancy than men do, but they tend to spend a larger proportion of their old age living with disability. Therefore, interventions to promote successful aging among women have the potential to affect public health substantially by enhancing physical functioning and quality of life among the increasing number of older women. There are no strict criteria for classifying a person as a successful ager; successful aging is a general term used to describe an older person who functions well across multiple domains. Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted tool to measure successful aging, such as a successful aging scale or a successful aging test. Researchers tend to infer that an older woman is aging successfully if she lacks evidence of physical, cognitive, or psychological impairment. Although successful aging is more than merely the absence of measurable impairment, most existing measures of successful aging tend to assess impairment across multiple domains and use this information to draw conclusions about successful aging. Measures of successful aging typically include objective and subjective indicators of physical and cognitive functioning.