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Reaching 100 Years of Age May Be More about Attitude and Adaptation than Health History, UGA Study Finds
By
Kirk McAlpin, UGA Today
November 30, 2010
World
University
of Georgia research has provided new clues on surviving to be 100 years
old, finding that how we feel about ourselves and our ability to adapt to
an accumulation of challenging life experiences may be as or more
important than health factors.
The
research, published in the current edition of the journal Current
Gerontology and Geriatrics Research, used data collected as part of
the Georgia Centenarian Study, one of only two centenarian studies in the
country, to measure psychological and social factors in addition to
genetics and health of so-called expert survivors. Two hundred forty-four
people age100 years or older were studied between 2001 and 2009. The
research found that critical life events and personal history, along with
how people adapt to stressful situations and cope with them are crucial to
explaining successful aging.
“Understanding
health in these terms has huge implications for quality of life,” said
Leonard Poon, director of the
Institute
of
Gerontology
in the UGA College of Public Health and lead author of the study. “What
is happening to you matters, but more importantly, it is your perception
of what is happening to you that is really important for your individual
health.”
A
majority of past research on the oldest of the old focused on health
factors, but the researchers found that centenarians’ feelings about
their own health, well-being and support systems, rather than measures
such as blood pressure and blood sugar are stronger predictors of
survival, said Poon.
Personality
also determined how well the centenarians reacted to life stress and
change, and therefore whether they were as happy in their old age as they
were when young. Healthy 100-year-olds had personalities described as open
and conscientious. Neurotic personalities tended to be less healthy, the
study found.
An
individual confronted with a stressful situation can either find a quick
emotional solution or ruminate on the problem, explained Poon. “One is
very destructive in terms of general well-being,” he said, “and the
other is very adaptive.”
Other
research drawing from the Georgia Centenarian Study compared physical
function of the elderly living in the community with those living in
retirement facilities and found that physical activity decreased by
approximately one-third when community residents moved to retirement
facilities.
A
decrease in physical activity accelerates a decline in health, explained
Elaine Cress, professor in the
Institute
of
Gerontology
and lead author of a related study published in the current issue of the
journal Gerontology.
“By
understanding physical decline in functioning, caregivers can help
maintain a high quality of life for the centenarian with appropriate
support,” said Cress, who also is a faculty member in the department of
kinesiology in the UGA College of Education. “We developed a scale to
assess physical performance, which has not been done before with
centenarians. This can be used in future research to predict when people
are going to start needing more help. They need to know how to plan, and
society needs to know how to plan, too.
Although
still rare, centenarians are a growing segment of the population. Poon
notes there were an estimated 50,454 in 2000, but the number is expected
to rise to more than 800,000 by 2050, making accurate information about
their well-being increasingly important.
Poon
added that one phenomenon that occurs all over the world is that women
live longer than men. In industrialized countries such as the
U.S.
,
France
and
Japan
, five to six women reach 100 years for every man who does. Only
Sardinia
has a one-to-one ratio. At the opposite extreme, 13 South Korean women
live to be 100 for every man.
“Our next phase is to go to four different
countries where there are different gender survival ratios and see why
they are the same, why they are different and what makes women live longer
than men,” said Poon.
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