Age Does Not Mean Decline.

By Karen and Erica

Breaking news! Age does not inevitably result in physical decline.

You probably knew that instinctively, but now there is data. A recent study concludes that, contrary to some perceptions, many people can become stronger, and walk faster, when they age.The study was specifically designed to see behind prevailing perceptions to the contrary:

Methods: Individuals 65 years and older, who participated in a nationally representative longitudinal study, had their physical health assessed by walking speed and their cognitive health assessed by a global performance measure. We calculated the percentage of the sample that showed improvement in each domain from baseline to the last measurement up to 12 years later. We also examined whether a positive-age-belief measure predicted this improvement in regression models. 

Results: It was found that 45.15% of persons improved in cognitive and/or physical function over this period, and positive age beliefs predicted these two types of improvement, both with and without adjusting for relevant covariates. 

Conclusions: Our findings underscore the need to instill or magnify the positivity of age beliefs and to redefine aging so that it includes the possibility of improvement.

Given that, it might make sense for all of us to become more positive in our expectations about what happens as we age.

Findings of the current study suggest there are concepts of aging science that could benefit from revisions. Rather than limiting biomarkers of aging to indicators of decline, there could be biomarkers of improvement and stability; the operationalization of geroscience could be expanded beyond predicting patterns of decline to also predicting improvement and stability in aging health; and the widespread use of the term “accelerated aging” could be expanded beyond its current definition, which equates aging with decline, to include patterns of improvement and stability.

Most 66% of the participants only showed improvement in one domain: cognition or walking speed. This contrasts with the widespread assumption that cognitive and physical health patterns exist in tandem in later life.

Apparently, if one looks at a group of aging people as a unit, the data may show a general decline. But if one looks at each individual, some do decline but many improve. When the researchers averaged the participants’ scores, they saw the expected decline in ability as people aged. But on the individual level, that picture was different.

“Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” Levy said. “What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”

Why these differences? Of course there may be many individual reasons, but one that seems critical is attitude towards aging.

One of the surprising factors found to be associated with improvement is the participants’ own perception of aging. People who held a more positive attitude toward aging were more likely to show improvement both in cognitive functioning and in walking speed.

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The possible implication of the findings is that a more positive attitude toward aging, both at the personal level and at the social level, may be an important factor in maintaining physical and cognitive functioning even in the later decades of life.

So what should we make of these findings in our own lives? Each of us will have a different answer, but for many of us our minds will undergo a shift. When we were much younger, we expected to be sitting in rocking chairs by now, popping Bonbons and sipping martinis and watching sitcoms. That would have been fun! But look what we are doing instead. Many of us are rather astonished to be reasonably mobile, physically and mentally, and fully engaged with the wider world. Much more fun!

Once we, and everyone else, understand that older people are fully capable of remaining full participants in the world, the world will change.

And so will perceptions of all of us.