Successful Aging, Adaptation and Resilience

Objective: We used three operational definitions of healthy aging to estimate the prevalence of healthy aging among older adults in China. Methods: Data were from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Participants aged 65+ were included (N=4350). The three healthy aging definitions represent a conceptual continuum and all encompass disease, physical and cognitive functioning dimensions. Logistic regression was used to examine the association of age, gender, education, pension, and Hukou (Chinese identification system) on each definition. Results: The prevalence of healthy aging increases when the operational definitions are loosened, ranging from 3.9% (most restrictive definition) to 15.2% (least restrictive). Across definitions, the odds of healthy aging were lower for people of advanced age, low education, female gender, and without pension when compared to their counterparts. Discussion: Our findings regarding prevalence of healthy aging helps to set a benchmark to plan and evaluate initiatives to promote healthy aging in China. Our preliminary findings showed that disability prevalence was higher than that reported in a prior U.S. study. A reason for the difference is that our sample was less likely to have major diseases but more likely to be disabled compared to the U.S. sample. This suggests that the reporting of disease and the path from disease to disability may be different between older adults in China and the U.S. However, socioeconomic disadvantages associated with healthy aging are similarly supported in our and the U.S. study.