The concept of successful aging
Old age for good
What is healthy aging and what does it depend onOlga Green, "Russian Planet"
Over the past century, medicine has made significant progress, living conditions have greatly improved in many countries and at the same time the birth rate has fallen. According to UN forecasts, the trend of increasing the proportion of older people in the population will last until the middle of the XXI century and will affect not only developed, but also developing countries. Modern gerontologists refuse to consider old age as a time of extinction of bodily and mental functions, considering it as an important and productive period of life. The entire February issue of The Gerontologist magazine is devoted to works on this topic.
The birth of the conceptIn Russia, the concept of successful old age began to be studied relatively recently, and in the West it all started with the fact that in 1961 the American psychologist Robert Havighurst introduced the scientific concept of "successful aging".
It was the result of the synthesis of two opposing theories in gerontology – one of which stated that aging means the gradual destruction of ties between the individual and society, and the second, on the contrary, argued that a person in old age tends to maintain the same level of social ties that he had in middle age.
At the same time, Havighurst suggested using the term "successful aging", meaning "satisfaction with the present and lived life." In order to somehow measure this satisfaction, he identified several main components: a lifestyle that is socially acceptable for this age group; activity at the level of middle age; a positive assessment of oneself and one's employment, as well as a subjective feeling of happiness and satisfaction with one's own life. In the course of further research, Havighurst and his colleagues came to an unexpected conclusion for the science of that time: elderly people are fundamentally no different from middle-aged people in their social and psychological needs, except, in fact, biological features associated with the aging of the body.
Before Havighurst and his research, gerontology considered old age to be an exclusively medical problem, but after them it began to consider the socio-psychological aspects of aging.
And in 1987, a study was published in the USA, in which the concept of successful aging was approved for the first time, and it became the main one for the further development of gerontology in this direction. The authors of this study, John Rowe and Ruben Kahn, were the first to clearly define the parameters that a successful aging model should include. According to their version, this requires three components – general physical health, a high level of mental and physical activity, and productive social interaction.
The idea of American scientists has caused a lot of controversy – and so far gerontologists cannot come to a consensus on what is considered a prosperous old age. The concept that would unite all approaches does not yet exist. For example, in 2011, scientists Gayle Iwamasa and Michiko Iwasaki proposed a multi-faceted model in which successful aging is determined by the physical, social, functional and psychological components of health.
At the same time, some scientists add new components to this – for example, spiritual or material.
Not only healthIn February 2015, The Gerontologist magazine devoted the entire issue to research and articles on successful aging and all its aspects.
According to the editor of the journal Rachel Pruchno (Rachel Pruchno) in the introductory article, academic interest in the phenomenon of successful aging today is developing into a kind of social imperative. "Now, more than ever, it is critically important to develop science that can help people enjoy the most pleasant old age."
In 16 articles published in the journal, scientists comprehensively investigate how science has advanced in the 28 years since the publication of the works of Rowe and Kahn, as well as how their analysis corresponds to today's findings.
In the material devoted to the phenomenon of successful aging in different cultures, it is argued that ordinary people of different ages in the USA and Germany understand the idea of a prosperous old age approximately equally and at the same time see it much more broadly than is customary in modern scientific models. They take into account much more factors than in most theoretical models, which, in turn, should be reflected in subsequent hypotheses.
After conducting a study of the level of economic activity and life expectancy in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, scientists concluded that in countries where older people are more likely to work actively, people on average live longer.
Researchers at the University of Louisville argue that a broader definition of successful aging can have a positive impact on research on this issue, as well as on clinical practice and health policy. They emphasize that measuring positive aging based only on good physical and mental functions is not too realistic.
"In reality, this definition (of good health) can be applied to barely ten percent of the elderly population. As a result, older people feel guilty that they didn't do too well. At the same time, many of them, despite problems with chronic diseases or any physical limitations, still believe that their old age is quite successful," writes Valerie Lander MacCarthy, associate professor at the University.
According to McCarthy, the most correct definition of successful aging is given by Meredith Flood from the University of North Carolina: "Successful aging is the outcome preferred for an individual, in which he is able to adapt and cope with increasing age–related changes, while maintaining the purpose and meaning of life" (Successful aging: a concept analysis. // Journal of Theory Construction and Testing, 2002).
Simply put, the more passionate we are about something, active and cheerful, the less likely old age is to become a heavy burden. It would seem that everything is very simple, but the implementation of this on a public scale is still at the earliest stage.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru26.02.2015