By Julie E 
Photo Credit ( Greety image )
“You’re only as old as you feel” is a saying you’ve probably heard. There is growing evidence that this cliché isn’t all that far off. Numerous studies have examined the distinction between people’s subjective age—how old they feel on the inside—and their chronological age—their age based on the number of orbits around the sun. You might be surprised by the outcome!
Age discrepancy between subjective and chronological
A sample of 2,969 Americans aged 18 and older participated in the 2009 Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends study on aging. The researchers found a significant discrepancy between the lived experiences of the older study participants and the expectations of young and middle-aged persons toward old life.
One of the survey’s questions asked respondents to express their age in years. It’s fascinating that the Pew research team discovered that people feel younger as they age. For instance, almost half of the study’s participants, who were between the ages of 18 and 29, claimed they felt their age, while around a quarter stated they felt older than their age. On the other hand, 32% of persons 65 and older stated they felt exactly their age, while 60% said they felt younger than their age. Just 3% of respondents who were 65 years of age or older reported feeling older than their actual age.
The results of this study suggest that as people age, the difference in years between their chronological (actual) and subjective (felt) ages seems to widen. Nearly half of survey participants aged 50 and beyond reported feeling at least ten years younger than their actual age, according to the Pew researchers. The fact that one-third of respondents between the ages of 65 and 74 said they felt 10 to 19 years younger than their actual age is even more startling. In this age bracket, one in six survey participants reported feeling at least 20 years younger than their true age!
Is age only a numerical value?
The findings of a 2008 Norwegian study were comparable to those of the Pew survey. In order to ascertain the subjective age perception (SAP), or how old one feels on the inside, of 2,471 individuals between the ages of 40 and 79 at the beginning of the study, Norwegian researchers conducted a follow-up survey five years later.
The majority of survey participants felt younger than their actual age, according to the researchers, and this was particularly true for older participants. Good physical and mental health were the main predictors of a younger SAP for the oldest study participants, who were between the ages of 70 and 79.
Even seniors who have several diseases or health issues reported feeling subjectively younger than their actual age, according to a 2019 study that was published in the International Journal of Aging Research. This finding may be more intriguing.
Using their self-reported subjective age as a guide, the study polled Americans and Canadians aged 65 to 90, with an average age of 73. We asked them how old they felt on the inside. According to their comments, the participants’ average subjective age was only 51 years old, despite the fact that they had several health problems. That represents an average age gap of over 20 years between chronological age and subjective age. According to some responders, they felt as young as 17. Furthermore, only 8% of survey participants said they believed their internal age was equal to their actual age.
The elderly of today are “younger.”
It’s just your imagination: A 30-year study in Finland reveals that many seniors today are, both cognitively and physically, younger than their predecessors.
The study evaluated the first 500 Finns, born in 1910 and 1914, at ages 75 and 80, respectively, in the middle of the 1980s. We evaluated the second cohort, consisting of 726 individuals, 30 years after the first cohort, at ages 75 and 80, respectively. They were born in 1938 or 1939 and 1942 or 1943. The contemporary group, which included people born in the 1930s and 1940s, displayed notable distinctions:
They were able to walk between.2 and.4 meters per second quicker than the previous cohort.
Compared to the previous group, the grip strength was 5–25% stronger.
They saw a 20–47% increase in knee extension strength.
They outperformed the previous batch in working memory, reasoning, and verbal fluency.
Overall, the latter cohort showed “markedly and meaningfully higher results in the maximal functional capacity tests,” suggesting that Finns between the ages of 75 and 80 are living longer and performing better physically.
This disparity between chronological age and subjective age, for instance, could help explain why some elderly people disregard age-based medical advice, such as the need for preventive checkups. Seniors with a youthful mindset may mistakenly believe that age-based medical advice is exclusive to the elderly, despite their own youth. This may result in the development of avoidable medical disorders in this population.
In a similar vein, administrators and legislators working in the senior housing sector need to note these findings regarding how seniors view their age. Indeed, this demographic may not respond well to branding or language that uses “senior,” as they may think it means older people. Rather, words like “active” or “young inside” may be more appealing to today’s senior citizens.