Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Volume 33, 2013

Jean-Marie Robine, PhD, is a Research Director at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and head of the Health and Demography team at the Department of Biostatistics, University of Montpellier, France. Since its creation in 1989, Dr. Robine has been the coordinator of the International Network on Health Expectancy (REVES), which brings together over 150 researchers from more than 100 research institutes or universities in over 30 countries worldwide. He is the project leader of the European Health Expectancy Monitoring Unit (EHEMU), supported by the European Union. He is also responsible for the development of the International Database on Longevity (IDL) in association with the main research demographic centers. In the field of the genetic of longevity, Dr. Robine was one of the principal investigators of the European challenge for Healthy Ageing project (ECHA, Fifth European Research Framework, 2001-2004) and was one of the PI's for the Genetic of Healthy Ageing project (GEHA, Sixth European Research Framework, 2004-2009). Dr. Robine is also the chair of the Committee on Longevity and Health of the International Union for the Scientific Study of the Population (IUSSP) and co-chair of the Steering Committee of the World Ageing Survey (WAS), prepared by the International Association of Gerontology (IAG). ||Carol Jagger, PhD, is the AXA Professor of Epidemiology of Ageing in the Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University. Her research spans demography and epidemiology with a focus on mental and physical functioning in ageing and determinants of healthy active life expectancy, particularly through cohort studies of ageing: the Melton Mowbray studies and currently the MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing Study and the MRC Newcastle 85 study. Within Europe she co-leads the European Health Expectancy Monitoring Unit and led the Healthy Ageing and Wellbeing theme of the FUTURAGE project which has created the roadmap for ageing research in Europe for the next 10-15 years. Carol is a Chartered Scientist and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. |Eileen Crimmins, PhD, is the AARP Professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California where she is currently the director of the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health, one of the Demography of Aging Centers supported by the U.S. National Institute on Aging. She is also the Director of a Multidisciplinary Training in Gerontology grant. Dr. Crimmins is a co-investigator of the NIA Sponsored Health and Retirement Survey in the U.S. Much of her research has focused on changes over time in health and mortality. Crimmins has been instrumental in organizing and promoting the recent integration of the measurement of biological indicators in large population surveys. She recently served as co-chair of a Committee for the National Academy of Sciences to address why life expectancy in the U.S. is falling so far behind that of other countries. She is a member of the Committee on Population at the National Research Council and has served on NAS panels of Race/Ethnic differences in Health, the Challenges of an Aging Society, and The Health of the American Population. She has co-edited several books with a focus on international aging, mortality and health expectancy: Determining Health Expectancies; Longer Life and Healthy Aging; Human Longevity, Individual Life Duration, and the Growth of the Oldest-old Population; the Handbook of Adult Mortality, Explaining Diverging Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries, and International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages: Dimensions and Sources.

Preface




Jean-Marie Robine, Carol Jagger and Eileen Crimmins




Section 1: How healthy are the longest lived?




Chapter 1. The oldest-old: Health in Europe and the United States




Aïda Solé-Auró and Eileen M. Crimmins




Chapter 2.
Age Trajectory of High Cognitive Functioning Among the Oldest Old




Mikael Thinggaard, Matt McGue and Kaare Christensen




Chapter 3. Malleability of human ageing: the curious case of old age mortality in Japan




Frouke M. Engelaer, Eugene M.G. Milne, David van Bodegom, Yasuhiko Saito, Rudi G.J. Westendorp and Thomas B.L. Kirkwood




Chapter 4. Quality of health care: approaches and findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing




Nicholas Steel, David Melzer and Suzanne Richards




Chapter 5. The semantic network of ageing well




Rocio Fernandez-Ballesteros, Maria-Angeles Molina, Rocio Schettini and Marta Santacreu





Chapter 6. A New Concept of Successful Aging in the Oldest-old. – Development of gerotranscendence and its influence on the psychological well-being –





Yasuyuki Gondo, Takeshi Nakagawa and Yukie Masui




Section 2: What drives healthy longevity?




Chapter 7. Optimizing Human Healthspan and Lifespan: Insights from Okinawa and Hawaii




Bradley J. Willcox, Makoto Suzuki, Timothy A. Donlon, Qimei He, John S. Grove, Kamal H. Masaki and D. Craig Willcox




Chapter 8. Mobility in human aging: A multidisciplinary lifespan conceptual framework




Luigi Ferrucci and Jack M. Guralnik




Chapter 9. Physical and Biological Indicators of Health and Functioning in U.S. Oldest-Old




Jennifer Ailshire and Eileen Crimmins




Chapter 10. Extended Fixed Attribute Dynamics Method and an Illustrative Application in Bio-demographic-genetic Analysis on Longevity




Zeng Yi




Chapter 11. Gene expression biomarkers and longevity




David Melzer, Luke C Pilling, Alexander D Fellows, Alice C Holly, Lorna W Harries and Luigi Ferrucci




Section 3: Are we living longer healthier?




Chapter 12. Understanding the mortality decline at older ages: improved life course or improved present period?




Dorly Deeg, Majogé J.G. van Vliet, Jan W.P.F. Kardaun and Martijn Huisman




Chapter 13. Recent trends in disability-free life expectancy in the French elderly: Twenty years follow-up of the Paquid cohort




Karine Pérès, Arlette Edjolo, Jean-François Dartigues and Pascale Barberger-Gateau




Chapter 14. Trends of functioning and health in nonagenarians - the Vitality 90+ Study




Marja Jylha, Linda Enroth and Tiina Luukkaala




Chapter 15. Trends over time in cognitive function and activities of daily living among Danish centenarians




Karen Andersen-Ranberg




Chapter 16. Sex differences in healthy life expectancy in the Netherlands




Frouke M. Engelaer, David van Bodegom and Rudi G.J. Westendorp




Conclusion




Jean-Marie Robine, Carol Jagger and Eileen Crimmins