SynthesisJournal of cross-cultural gerontology2020
What Does "Successful Aging" Mean to you? - Systematic Review and Cross-Cultural Comparison of Lay Perspectives of Older Adults in 13 Countries, 2010-2020.
Synthesis in Journal of cross-cultural gerontology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 104 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Subjective Vitality Among Older Adults from a Self-Determination Theory Perspective: A Scoping Review.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Purpose in life as a predictor of capability well-being among older adults in Thailand: a cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Psychosocial and cognitive profiles associated with health-related quality of life and healthy aging among community-dwelling older adults: a latent profile analysis.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Resourceful Aging Among Migrants and Refugees: A Concept Analysis and Model Development for Holistic Nursing Care.Journal of holistic nursing : official journal of the American Holistic Nurses' Association · 2026Article
- Aging Successfully Despite Limitations? Meanings and Perceptions of Aging Well Among Older Adults Living in Long-Term Care Institutions.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A mixed-methods study on the interplay between AI-assisted dynamic assessment, reading comprehension, and psychological adaptivity.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Physical activity in Germany: Discrepancy between high societal expectation and actual activity levels in old age.Journal of health monitoring · 2025Article
- But Is Ageing Really All Bad? Conceptualising Positive Ageing.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- When and how is age mentioned? The role of age references in narratives of adults aged 65 and over.The Gerontologist · 2025Article
- The Dynamics Between Responses to Aging Restrictions and Day-to-Day Functioning as a Key to Successful Aging.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Engaging Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Research: Qualitative Substudy of Factors Impacting Participation.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- How can qualitative in-depth interviews optimize cross-cultural measurement of academic resilience?Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Examining the Relationship Between Incarceration and Healthy Aging.Journal of developmental and life-course criminology · 2025Article
- Topic Clusters of Successful Aging Studies: Results of a Topic Modeling Approach.The Gerontologist · 2024Article
- Capturing Successful Aging in Daily Life: Exploring the Intensive Longitudinal Findings From a U.S. National Sample.The Gerontologist · 2024Article
- Redefining the Successful Aging of Veterans: A Scoping Review.The Gerontologist · 2024Article
- Relationship between participation in leisure activities and the maintenance of successful aging in older Chinese adults: a 4-year longitudinal study.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Next generation brain health: transforming global research and public health to promote prevention of dementia and reduce its risk in young adult populations.The lancet. Healthy longevity · 2024Review
- Applying Concepts of Successful Aging in Measuring and Promoting Whole Person Health.Medical care · 2024Review
- Advantage in Aging Cognition Associated with theGeroPsych · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Successful aging is a concept that has gained popularity and relevance internationally among gerontologists in recent decades. Examining lay older adults' perspectives on successful aging can enhance our understanding of what successful aging means. We conducted a systematic review of peer reviewed studies from multiple countries published in 2010-2020 that contained qualitative responses of lay older adults to open-ended questions such as "What does successful aging mean to you?" We identified 23 studies conducted in 13 countries across North America, Western Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. We identified no studies meeting our criteria in Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, North Asia, or Pacific Islands. Across all regions represented in our review, older adults most commonly referred to themes of social engagement and positive attitude in their own lay definitions of successful aging. Older adults also commonly identified themes of independence and physical health. Least mentioned were themes of cognitive health and spirituality. Lay definitions of successful aging varied by country and culture. Our findings suggest that gerontology professionals in fields including healthcare, health psychology, and public health may best serve older adults by providing services that align with older adults' priority of maintaining strong social engagement as they age. Lay perspectives on successful aging acknowledge the importance of positive attitude, independence, and spirituality, in addition to physical and cognitive functioning.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.