The Semantic Network of Aging Well

Abstract

Aging well" is a common expression used by lay people as synonymous with a set of verbal labels emerging from scientific literature attributed to a positive trajectory of aging-healthy, successful, competent, optimal, vital, active, or productive aging. These terms with tightly semantic relations conform to a semantic network.This chapter provides a historical overview of the different terminology, followed by a review of the definitions used by researchers as well as an assessment of the extent to which older adults are aging well in different studies. Second, the lay cross-cultural concept of aging well is described. This provides a useful backdrop for dealing with potential problems and issues in operationalizing definitions of aging well (confounding outcomes and predictors, using objective and/or subjective indicators, and to what extent different definitions are required at different ages). Finally, the issue of to what extent the different labels of aging well have different nuances in their meanings is assessed.

Effectiveness of the Vital Aging program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults

“…This four-domain model of active aging has been tested through structural equation modeling with several samples and different methods29 and strongly supported by scientific literature through evaluation research 30–37. Moreover, developments from this program have had positive evaluation results such as the “I am Active program”, involving a wider concept of active aging, including physical activity, healthy nutritional habits, cognitive functioning, and self-efficacy for aging, as core dimensions of active aging 38…”

“…This new paradigm is commonly expressed through the concept “active aging” with a wide global variation in the terms used to comprise the notion of “aging well”, including active, successful, healthy, optimal, productive, positive, competent aging 15,16. Although all these terms can be considered synonymous, the concept of active aging and all the others lack a precise universally agreed definition and is commonly used to mean “all things to all people” 17,18…”

Active Aging Promotion: Results from theVital AgingProgram

“…As shown in Figure 1, this four-domain model of aging well has recently been tested by Fernández-Ballesteros et al [23] through Structural Equation Modeling, with data both from our cross-cultural project on lay definitions of aging well provided by older adults from 7 Latin American and 3 European, [24–26] and from the ELEA research project (Longitudinal Study of Active Aging) [27]. …”

Active Aging: A Global Goal

“…This positive view of Aging adopted several verbal rubrics: “healthy” [15], “successful” [13, 14], “optimal” [16], “vital” [17], “productive” [18], “active” [19, 20], “positive” [21] or, simply, “aging well” [12] or “good life” [22]. It is important to emphasize that all these terms are taken by several authors interchangeably when they review the field (e.g., [23–25]); others try to establish differences between healthy Aging, active or successful Aging, and productive Aging [26, 27]. …”

“…All these terms are considered as multidimensional and multilevel concepts and all of them are referring to a positive way of Aging or “Aging well,” and, as mentioned above, opening a new paradigm in gerontology, based on the delay of senescence, the compression of morbidity and mortality, the diversity of the ways of Aging, and the plasticity of human nature in front of enrichment circumstances [11, 27, 29]. …”