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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Older adults' views of "successful aging"
— how do they compare with researchers' definitions? | | Author(s) | Elizabeth A Phelan, Lynda A Anderson, Andrea Z LaCroix |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 52, no 2, February 2004 |
| Pages | pp 211-216 |
| Source | http://www.americangeriatrics.org http://www.blackwellpublishing.com |
| Keywords | Asian people ; Japan ; White people ; Attitude ; Ageing process ; Cross sectional surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Two longitudinal studies of dementia and normal ageing in Washington State were used. The first, the Kame (turtle in Japanese and a symbol of longevity) concerns a sample established in 1992-94 of 1,985 Japanese Americans aged 65+. The second, Adult Changes in Thought, enrolled 2,581 white men and women aged 65+ from a health maintenance organisation (HMO) in 1994-96. Respondents were asked whether they had ever thought about ageing and ageing successfully, whether these thoughts had changed over the previous 20 years, and about how important specific attributes, originating from the published literature, were in characterising successful ageing. Overall, 90% had previously thought about ageing and ageing successfully. Some 60% said that their thoughts had changed over the previous 20 years. Both groups rated the same 13 attributes as important; the white group added one further attribute, learning new things. Older people's definition of successful ageing is multidimensional, encompassing physical, functional, psychological and social health. In contrast, none of the published work describing attributes of successful ageing includes all four dimensions. Future work would benefit from an expanded definition that adequately reflects older people's perceptions. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040603205 A |
| Classmark | TKK: 7DT: TKA: DP: BG: 3KB: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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