Perceptions of Successful Aging Among Diverse Elders With Late-Life Disability

Abstract

Across race and ethnic groups, most of these participants with late-life disability felt they had aged successfully. Thus, successful aging involves subjective criteria and has a cultural context that is not captured in objective measurements. Understanding elders' perception will help establish common ground for communication between clinicians and elders and identify the most appropriate interventions to help elders achieve and maintain the experience of successful aging.

Estrutura conceptual do envelhecimento em diferentes etnias

“…Successful aging is defined as a state in which the individual is able to make good use of the psychological and social potentials to compensate for physiological limitations and achieve a quality of personal life satisfaction, even in the context of diseases and disabilities (12) . Therefore, the concept of well-being and health manifested by the elderly of the five ethnic groups of this research reveal similarities to the study that investigated characteristics of a successful aging (15) in which the presence of disease did not limit the quality of life.…”

“…Well-being involves subjective criteria and has a cultural context difficult to be captured by objective measurements, since aging with health is a personal concept, historical and related to physical attributes and individual expectations, and that characterizes aging as a journey and not an end. Thus, even in unfavorable situations such as illness, the elderly seek strategies of coping and adapting in order to align their perception of aging with their experiences (15) . Successful aging is defined as a state in which the individual is able to make good use of the psychological and social potentials to compensate for physiological limitations and achieve a quality of personal life satisfaction, even in the context of diseases and disabilities (12) .…”

“…Considering and respecting the cultural knowledge of the elderly contributes to breaking the barriers of the impersonality of the nurse towards the patient. Since the nurses recognize the elderly in its entirety, with closer contact with daily habits and everyday events, they can contribute to the establishment of a common base in the communication between both, and in the identification of interventions that are more adequate to reach and maintain the experience of a successful aging (15) .…”

Concordance and discordance between objectively and subjectively measured successful aging and their linkages with mortality

“…Successful aging, especially SSA, is an adaptive process that results in older adults maintaining a perception of well-being and life satisfaction (Romo, Wallhagen, Yourman et al, 2013); our approach of exploratory classification of successful aging and findings on the associations between subtypes of successful aging and subsequent mortality may be useful for care and service provisions in both clinical settings and community service programs, policy-making, and the individual's better adaptation. For example, the joint classification of OSA and SSA may benefit clinicians by encouraging a patient-centered definition of successful aging; clinicians could develop intervention programs or treatment plans that help older adults to develop positive adaptations (Phelan, Anderson, Lacroix et al, 2004).…”

Clinical and laboratory characteristics of active and healthy aging (AHA) in octogenarian men

“…Their purpose was to include in this definition-along with the absence of major diseasesoptimal psychological, physical and social functioning up to old age. Several terms of this concept have thereafter been used (''active aging'', ''productive aging,'' ''aging well,'' ''living well,'' ''senior wellness'', ''positive biology'') [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], and recently the abbreviation AHA (''active and healthy aging'') has been used in Europe. We have chosen to use the terms AHA and non-AHA in the present paper.…”