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People Want to Live Longer, If in Good Health
USAgNet - 01/23/2018

Longevity is a such a pervasive goal in public health policy and even popular media, but individually most people only want to live long lives if they will be healthy, according to a new study that includes a University of Kansas gerontologist.

"People in three cultures from around the world are reluctant to specify their desired longevity," said David Ekerdt, professor of sociology and gerontology. "To me this is interesting because longevity is such a valued public health objective, but at the individual level, longer lives are a goal 'only if' I remain healthy."

Ekerdt is the first author of the new qualitative study published in the Journal of Aging Studies that involved interviews with 90 people ages 62 and older who lived in Germany, China and the United States.

The study is part of the larger international project Aging as Future, supported by a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation in Germany. Ekerdt has joined with researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, North Carolina State University at Raleigh, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and the University of Jena in Germany.

Promoting longer lives does have tremendous value, Ekerdt said, especially in reducing mortality at younger ages. However, research into how individuals consider longevity is also important because it provides insight into how people think about the aging process, he said.

The results of these interviews reinforce previous findings from this research group that revealed many older adults -- in various cultures -- think of life as not a smooth continuum of time but segmented into different states. The researchers refer to four "ages" or stages of life, including the third age, which is an active retirement where people leave traditional work and family roles, followed by the fourth age.

"People seem to view one part of the future as wanted and another as not wanted, typically the 'fourth age' which is basically the period when one might experience a disability or a potential health decline," Ekerdt said.

For this study, the researchers interviewed 30 people in each country, and they recruited the sample with sex and age quotas to reflect a range of experience with retirement.

About one-third of respondents did not express aspirations for a longer life.


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