Aging Well, Sometimes a Personal Choice

"You cannot change your age, and the older you are, the more likely you're going to get ill. And you can't change your genes, but we've identified quite a few things that we have some control over, and it's an optimistic message."

"Certainly we want to help out the people who aren't doing well, but we also want to say, 'hey, what's the secret sauce of people who are thriving'?"

"We looked at reports on what older adults think of as being important. The identify being able to manage in their activities of daily living, feeding themselves, cooking, toileting, walking upstairs, walking -- just daily activities that you need to do, and they wanted to continue to maintain that. And that was our standard."

"We were delighted to see that so many people were doing well. We normally think when you're over 80, it's a downward trajectory. Eventually people are going to get ill, but to see that so many people were doing well gives us a lot of hope."

Esme Fuller-Thomson, professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto

"The prevalance of successful aging was significantly higher among Canadian-born older adults compared to immigrant older adults, even though three-quarters of the immigrants in this study had migrated to Canada four or more decades ago."

Study findings, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

 

Studies by researchers at the University of Toronto conclude that people are able to thrive physically, mentally and socially in their 80s and beyond. An Institute for Life Course and Aging team wrote of their discoveries behind the science of aging gracefully, their study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Their findings validated that life isn't necessarily all downhill with old age.

Many positives were identified in aging gracefully and the experience of life satisfaction associated with growing old. Crucially, they found that people have greater influence over the condition of their health than they may realize. Dr. Fuller-Thomson, the director of the university's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, spent over 25 years as a gerontologist, mostly studying people whose slide into their older years was impacted with ill health.

She has now turned her focus around to examine resilience in Canada's aging population. She and her research team conducted a study comparing aging among immigrants and Canadian-born older adults. Over 7,000 middle-aged and older people were followed for roughly three years, identifying factors linked to 'successful' (optimal) aging. Their findings led them to suggest that financial aids, language programs, information and referral services could support immigrant older adults to age well.

 

A new study aimed to uncover the key factors that contribute to successful or optimal aging by following more than 7,000 middle-aged and older Canadians for approximately three years. The researchers found that maintaining excellent health and avoiding disabling cognitive, physical, or emotional problems was more likely among those who were female, married, physically active, not obese, had higher incomes, had never smoked, and did not have insomnia, heart disease, or arthritis.

 

Healthy people, they found, were less likely than others to develop physical, cognitive or emotional problems. Participants selected for the study were in 'excellent' health when the three-year study began. No signs of memory loss, chronic pain or disability were seen. Even though the subjects could be living with a chronic disease or conditions that commonly tend to develop with age, such as high blood pressure. These health challenges were not seen to interfere with the subjects' ability to look after themselves.

Observations of good habits such as weight management, not smoking, physical activity and social connectedness as hugely beneficial, are not surprising; the point being that people have the capacity to stave off mental, cognitive and emotional decline. For Dr. Ganann with the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging, observations by her team underline the importance of understanding perspectives on health directly from older adults.

The reseqrch she conducted through the Aging Community and Health Research Unit focused on community-based interventions to improve health care and health-related quality of life access for older adults. Leading the Embolden study meant to connect older people to peer-to-peer leaning and experiences in community hubs throughout Hamilton targeting neighbourhoods with a high proportion of older adults including those living with low income.

"I think that that's a big driver for me, really understanding what are the issues that people are really facing, and how do we work on them together. There's a lot that we know that can benefit people, but there's a gap between what we know and what actually happens."

"There's a lot that's known in terms of people should be physically active, people should eat well, it's a benefit for them to be socially connected, but we know that that's not easy in particular groups.:

But if they don't have social support, if they're not satisfied with their life, life circumstances, if they're managing pain and mental health conditions, it's a lot harder for them to do this sort of successful aging."

"The thinking was, how do we try to break down some of these barriers, whether they're socio-economic related to ethno-cultural communities or whatever, it's meeting their basic needs."

"So how do we invest in those communities and create better connections?

"People want to connect with others who understand their context. And older adults come with a wealth of knowledge and life experience, so we really need to meet people where they are and celebrate those strengths."

Rebecca Ganann, professor in nursing, McMaster University, Hamilton

Image by Ground Picture via Shutterstock

"I am so pleased to be looking at resilience instead of pathology."

"Admittedly, getting people out of depression and anxiety and improving their physical health are all important, but if we could all be aging and doing well and enjoying life, it's really a dividend. We have this incredible aging society dividend that we want to maximize."

Esme Fuller-Thomas, University of Toronto