Views about aging are changing rapidly. The old view of aging was that much of one’s latter years were basically spent in a state of disability. Conventional wisdom was that seniors of advanced age (the ‘‘oldest of the old’’) would spend their final years unable to contribute to society, with several of these years often requiring skilled care such as a nursing home. The new view of aging is that people will remain physically and mentally healthy until very old age. This is what people today are looking for in their later years: to remain vibrant and in very good health, as contributing members of society. This paradigm shift is possible for many people today with present-day strategies, so this is a realistic goal for many people.
We have the technology and medical knowledge to enable a significant portion of the population to live to more than 100 years of age already. Several factors are intersecting to create a scenario where this will become increasingly common in the years ahead. It is even possible that within the next few decades, life spans of 100 years may appear quite short. Today, human life expectancy has been steadily increasing by about 2.2 months per year.1 This progress has been steady for at least the past 60 years (see Figure 1). Due to the acceleration in the rate of technological change, within 10–15 years, some authors feel that life expectancy will continue to increase and at an increasing rate in the years ahead.2 Others researchers put the maximum life expectancy for the human population at 85–90 years, although individuals within the population may live longer.3
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