Successful Aging

Successful aging is differently defined in the medical, behavioral, and social sciences. In the field of biomedicine, successful aging is typically associated with good health and physical activity. Prominently, John Rowe and Robert L. Kahn coined the term successful aging as the intersection of three components: low risk of disease, high level of functioning, and active life style. In this vein, there is a debate about how subjective and objective criteria should be weighted when defining success in old age. For example, good health does not guarantee that a person is well-adjusted or active and vice versa. In the behavioral life-span sciences, in contrast, successful aging is defined as an optimal adaptation to challenges, which results in maintenance or enhances functioning in everyday life. In ...