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Death rates for 80+-year-olds are now half of what they were after WWII. The chance of living past 90 years has gone up by roughly 30% per decade for people born in Denmark in 1895, 1905, and 1915 - and the later cohorts are functioning better physically and cognitively. Centenarians are on average functioning physically and cognitively as well as 92-93-year-olds due to selective mortality. A steep increase in the frequency of hospitalization and surgical procedure among 85-100-year-olds is occurring, but there is a lack of knowledge about treatment effects and side effects among the oldest-old.

Danes are by far the most content citizens in the EU. We test a number of (im)plausible hypotheses and find that the solid depth of Danish well-being is multifactorial, but with two decisive factors: winning the 1992 European Championship in football and having constantly low (and undoubtedly realistic) expectations for the coming year. With an undoubtedly disappointing 2007 in store, we do not wish to foster false hopes. However, some tepid comfort might perhaps be taken from the fact that if you lower your expectations enough, you might feel a bit better next New Year.

Introduction: Long-lived individuals are rare and may be selected in part for the genetic factors that promote successful ageing. The children of long-lived parents may therefore age more successfully than the children of short-lived parents., Material and Methods: We used three major cross-sectional, population-based surveys to study the association of parental longevity with successful ageing in offspring. The measures of ageing were hand-grip strength, cognitive performance (mini mental state examination (MMSE) and a cognitive composite score), self-reported diseases, and self-rated health., Results: For every additional ten years the parents lived, grip strength increased by 0.32 kg (95% CI = 0.00-0.63), the MMSE score by 0.20 points (95% CI = 0.03-0.37), and cognitive composite score by 0.24 points (95% CI = 0.07-0.40). A ten-year increment of parental life was associated with a reduction by approximately 0.20 in the adjusted OR for having each of the following conditions: diabetes, hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke, or fair, poor or very poor self-rated health. Almost all the effects were seen solely in the cohort of 70+ year-olds, but not in the middle-aged or nonagenarians., Discussion: Parental life span is positively associated with physical and cognitive functioning and avoidance of some of the common chronic diseases. However, overall the effects are small and are seen in the elderly, but not in the middle-aged or the very old.