Friday, December 16, 2005

Successful Aging is All in the Mind

Seniors' perceptions of the aging process depend not on disease or physical disability, but rather on attitude and coping style. This research, conducted at and funded by the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, is unusual in that it employed subjective reports as a measure of successful aging.

"The medical community has not reached consensus on what constitutes successful aging," says lead researcher Dilip Jeste, M.D., Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at UCSD.

"The commonly used criteria suggest that a person is aging well if they have a low level of disease and disability. However, this study shows that self-perception about aging can be more important than the traditional success markers."


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