Healthy Aging: Current and Future Frameworks and Developments

Healthy aging is informed by theoretical developments within gerontology, the accumulation of biopsychosocial data on health and well-being in later life, and the perspectives of older persons themselves This article reviews this progress, consolidates recent advances with respect to proximal and distal influences, as well as risk and protective factors, for health and well-being in later life Measures used to assess various aspects of healthy aging in a variety of settings are discussed A refined Psychological and Contextual Model of Healthy Aging is presented to capture the current state of research and possibly assist in refining future research directions Both proximal and distal protective and risk factors for healthy aging are enumerated Finally, future research directions for a greater realization of healthy aging for all are offered