Successful Aging among the Young-Old, Old-Old, and Oldest-Old Chinese

Abstract

In this study, successful aging was defined by four dimensions including functional status, affective status, cognitive status, and productive involvement status. This study examined successful aging among Hong Kong Chinese old people in three different age cohorts: young-old, old-old, and oldest-old. The respondents were 1106 people aged 60 years or older from a cross-sectional study of a representative community sample of the elderly population in Hong Kong. We found modest associations between four dimensions of successful aging, indicating the relative independence of these four criteria for successful aging. Using multiple regression models, we found that age, gender, years of education, number of close relatives, frequency of contact with friends, financial strain, number of chronic illnesses, self-rated health, hearing impairment, and life satisfaction were associated with the successful aging indicator.