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Well-being and health from age 70 to 100: findings from the Berlin Aging Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2001

JACQUI SMITH
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, D-14195 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: smith@mpib-berlin.mpg.de

Abstract

An individual's personal sense of well-being (SWB) is an indicator of psychological adjustment and successful ageing. Health and functional capacity are viewed as important sources of life quality in old age but very little is known about their effects on SWB over time. Can older individuals maintain SWB despite declining health? Longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study, a locally representative sample of men and women aged 70 to 100+, indicate that cumulative health-related chronic life strains that characterize the Fourth Age set a constraint on the potential of the older individual to experience the positive side of life.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2001

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