Primary Education Topic:
Mental Health & Aging
Other Education Topics:
Aging in Community
Health & Wellness
Some older adults may consider a long-lived life a blessing, but others perceive it as a curse, leaving gerontological researchers and practitioners to wonder: Do people really want to live that long?
By Alex J. Bishop
Some older adults may consider a long-lived life a blessing, but others perceive it as a curse, leaving gerontological researchers and practitioners to wonder: Do people really want to live that long? With advanced old age comes a gradual acceleration and occurrence of multiple age–associated changes like sensory decline, general cognitive slowing, impaired functional mobility and social loss via death. Such deficits can erode subjective quality of life in very old age.