![]() įrailty by the Frailty Index (FI) has also been proposed as the proxy measure of ageing, and a personal biological age (PBA) can be counted from the FI score by investigating the mean FI for each age in a study population and then comparing the FI score of an individual to the mean scores of the population to determine the PBA of that individual. Resilience has earlier been suggested to play a part in ageing successfully. Psychological resilience refers to the person’s ability to adapt when facing a stressor, and physical resilience to the ability of maintaining or recovering function after the stressful event. This suggests that these survivors had high psychological (and perhaps also physical) resilience. A study investigating near-centenarians and centenarians found that even though they had poor objective health, their subjective health was good. Also, social networks and the surroundings have been considered important resources for ageing well in place. The meaning of ageing in place (dwelling in the community) has been related to a sense of identity through independence and autonomy. However, when investigating the prevalence of frailty and SA, there were overlaps of the SA group with the frail and pre-frail groups opposing the idea of a continuum. SA has been investigated as the possible opposite of frailty and the two do have similarities that could imply a continuum. However, in research, SA is still most often defined as the absence of disability. SA does not necessarily mean the absence of disease, disability or frailty, but includes also psychological and social factors. Researchers nowadays often include also constructs such as social engagement, satisfaction with life, and independence. The traditional concept by Rowe and Kahn (1997) depicted SA as the absence of disease and disability, high cognitive and physical function and engagement with life. It has been defined in various ways but a common, unified definition is still lacking. Successful ageing (SA) is the term often used in research for depicting extraordinary or exceptional ageing in contrast to usual ageing. Further research is needed to evaluate causality. Successful agers were satisfied with life despite hardships and had a lower biological than chronological age. The difference between the PBA and CA was greater at re-examination than at baseline indicating that they were also biologically successful agers. DiscussionĮven though the participants were chronologically older, had poorer physical ability and subjective health, they were still satisfied with their lives indicating possible psychological resilience. The PBA at baseline was 6.5 years younger than CA, and at re-examination, the difference was even more pronounced at 10.5 years. Still, 99% of the participants were at least moderately satisfied with their lives. ![]() All analyzed variables depicted poorer physical ability and subjective health at re-examination than at baseline. The participants’ mean age was 87.6 years (Standard deviation 2.5, range 84–96). A measurement of personal biological age (PBA) was established and the difference between the PBA and the chronological age (CA) was counted. Data on the participants’ functional ability, objective health, self-rated health and satisfaction with life were gathered at baseline and after a 20-year follow-up period. Successful ageing was defined as the ability to live at home without daily care. The purpose was also to identify possible factors leading to their successful ageing. The aim was to re-examine and describe the successful agers living at home at the age of 84 years or over after a 20-year follow-up. Successful ageing is the term often used for depicting exceptional ageing but a uniform definition is lacking.
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