Assessing the Success of Successful Aging

Editorials2 September 2003Assessing the Success of Successful AgingThomas A. Glass, PhDThomas A. Glass, PhDFrom Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health; Baltimore, MD 21205.Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-139-5_Part_1-200309020-00015 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail The final stage of life ends, for each of us, with death. Put differently, in the end, our bodies are certain to fail. This, like taxes, is among the very few certainties of life. Despite this certainty, we increasingly (and exclusively) apply the yardstick of success to life's final chapter. No one speaks of successful infancy or the harder to imagine successful adolescence. There is something unexpected, almost oxymoronic, about the notion of successful aging. Perhaps it is this very contradictory quality…