successful aging theory

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a theoretical framework in gerontology, most influentially articulated by John Rowe and Robert Kahn in their 1987 MacArthur Foundation study and subsequent 1998 book Successful Aging, identifying the key components of aging well as low probability of disease and disease-related disability, high cognitive and physical functional capacity, and active engagement with life including productive activity and social relationships; the model challenged the then-dominant view of aging as inevitable decline and stimulated enormous research interest in the positive potential of aging; critics of successful aging theory argue that it reflects the values and opportunities available primarily to affluent, educated populations with access to good healthcare, and that it risks pathologising the unavoidable disabilities and chronic conditions that are part of many people's late life regardless of their choices and character; alternative frameworks including Selective Optimization with Compensation — developed by Paul Baltes — emphasise adaptive strategies that enable older adults to maintain functioning in domains that matter most to them even as overall capacities decline