Abstract
Successful aging (SA) was proposed by Robert J Havighurst in 1961 to capture how older adults add “lives onto (their) years.” While there is a consensus regarding the multidimensionality of the concept, the set of criteria that should be applied to older adults of advanced age remain controversial. Notwithstanding their inevitable decline in physical health, adults of advanced age may still enjoy good psychosocial well-being. In this light, we compared the proportion of “successful agers” in two cohorts of adults aged 95 or above who lived with their families in 2011 (Nf77) and 2021/22 (Nf120) in Hong Kong using two models – Model A: i: Good subjective health, ii: more well-off than average, iii: as happy as young (Cho et al., 2012) and Model B: i: Weekly social activities, ii: absence of dementia, iii: intact sight and hearing ability, iv: intact mobility (Nosraty et al, 2012). Both models have been applied in adults aged 90 or above. In the 2011 cohort, 13.0% and 16.9% of our sample fulfilled the SA criteria of Model A & B respectively. The percentages fell to 1.7% and 13.7% respectively in the 2021/22 cohort. The decrease is due to less participants fulfilling the financial criterion of Model A, as well as the criteria on intact sight and hearing ability and the absence of dementia of Model B. COVID presents multidimensional challenges for adults of advanced age. Examining the dimensions that are most impacted will help orient recovery works along the direction of SA.