Correlates of self-rated successful aging among community-dwelling older adults

Objective: There is no consensus on how to define successful aging. The authors sought to determine the correlates of self-rated successful aging as well as its corre-spondence with major researcher-defined criteria. Methods: Participants were 205 community-dwelling adults over age 60. A questionnaire survey asked the partici-pants to rate their own degree of successful aging and inquired about demographic characteristics, medical history, activity levels, resilience, daily functioning, and health-related quality of life (Medical Outcomes study 36-item Short-Form [MOS-SF-36]). Participants ’ subjective ratings of successful aging were contrasted with sets of researcher-defined criteria, and correlates of subjectively rated successful aging were examined. Results: Ninety-two percent of the participants rated themselves as aging successfully. A majority of them also met other research criteria for successful aging such as independent living, mastery/growth, and positive adaptation but not those requiring an absence of chronic medical illness or physical disability. Higher SF-36 scores as compared with a published sample indirectly corroborated participants’ subjectively rated successful aging. Subjective ratings of successful aging were signif