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The current exploratory study investigates self-reported perceptions of successful ageing, and preferences for information access and support, amongst sexually and gender diverse people living with HIV in Australia. Cross-sectional data, derived from a larger survey, were extracted for 12 participants who self-reported as living with HIV and completed questions pertaining to successful ageing and information/support preferences. Qualitative responses regarding successful ageing were explored through thematic analysis while descriptive statistics were used to analyse information/support preferences. Themes of (1) social factors, agency, and autonomy; (2) physical and mental wellbeing; and (3) considerations of care needs and information were generated from qualitative data about successful ageing. General practitioners (83.3%) and HIV support services (75.0%) were the most preferred sources of information about ageing and care supports. Findings from this exploratory study identify opportunities for policy improvements, provision of funding, and coordinated community support to enable sexually and gender diverse people living with HIV to experience successful ageing in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how older Korean and Chinese migrants living in Perth, Australia, engage in various beauty, grooming and fitness practices to negotiate "successful ageing" in transnational contexts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 30 men and women aged between 60 and 89, we examine what social meanings are attached to these practices, and how the transnational context of living in Australia has influenced the participants' perceptions of ageing and presentation of self in later life. Migration in later life is often considered in relation to the 'host' countries values and social practices, which can make it difficult for individuals to settle and feel a sense of belonging especially in later life. In this article, we will illustrate how gender, class, and cultural dispositions intersect and link with possibilities for defining and redefining successful ageing in migrant contexts. This study illustrates how successful ageing emerges as a malleable concept that draws on ideas of an ideal ageing body from the cultural values of the 'home' country, rather than the 'host' country. The findings illustrate how in everyday lived experience, the transnational habitus does not always necessarily result in a 'divided habitus' where the values of the 'home' country and that of the 'host' country are in conflict – even when the migration experience is relatively recent. Quite the contrary, the way the participants utilise everyday beauty, fitness and grooming practices to maintain a future-focused self in the context of 'home' country's age-appropriate body ideals to perform signifiers of 'successful migrant living' point to the positive aspects that appearance management can have on an individual in later life, particularly in migrant contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review aimed to inform a deeper understanding of the varied experiences of ageing in place for older adults in Australia and New Zealand. Ageing in place involves older adults remaining in their own home or community as they age rather than moving into residential care. Our focus was on how ageing in place relates to older adults' mental health, life satisfaction, wellbeing, and overall ability to adapt well to ageing. This paper followed PRISMA‐ScR guidelines. Of the initial 210 papers identified, 20 met inclusion criteria and were retained. Four key themes related to experiences of ageing in place and the skills and strategies utilised to age in place were extracted from these studies. Themes encompassed older adults' individual characteristics and strategies, their connections to community, their home environment, and the appropriateness of support and services. We conclude that ageing in place should not be considered a "one size fits all" approach to ageing. Policymakers, researchers, and governments should acknowledge that older adults are a diverse group. Future ageing policy should strive to accommodate all older adults regardless of their circumstances or ageing preferences and researchers should include older adults from diverse populations and circumstances. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although a 'person‐centred focus' is a legislated objective for both aged‐care and disability services sectors in Australia, evidence suggests limited translation into systems and practices due to entrenched silos. This paper proposes a Best Practice Framework to mitigate these silos. Methods: Mixed‐methods research comprising key informant interviews with major stakeholders across both sectors; a survey of people with/without intellectual disability aged 60+ years; qualitative in‐depth interviews; and survey of health professionals. Results: There is an urgent need to develop inter‐sectoral 'integrated care systems'. Key components include choice in accommodation; regular assessment of health and well‐being indicators; development and adoption of nationally consistent policies/standards across integrated aged‐ and disability‐care sectors; improved strategies for workforce planning; and upskilling of existing staff including place‐based collaboration. Conclusions: An integrated service model requires collaboration on broader public policy instruments, appropriate planning and resourcing. A strategic shift is required to ensure better quality person‐centred support systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: High immigration has resulted in a culturally diverse ageing population. This study aims to examine the meaning of successful ageing among late‐life immigrants ageing in a new cultural environment. Methods: Semi‐structured interviews focused on the subjective experience of ageing well were conducted with 11 Chinese older adults who had moved to Australia in later life. Interviews were conducted in participants' native language and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Eleven themes were identified. A collectivist cultural ideal relating to avoiding burden to children underpinned a number of themes, including the importance of good health and financial security. Preferences regarding retaining or relinquishing traditional cultural expectations of dependence on adult children varied between participants, suggesting some postmigration shift in values. Conclusions: This study provides insights into the nuances of ageing from a novel cultural perspective, and highlights the role of postmigration adaptation in cultural values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives We examined the development of disease and disability in a large cohort of older women, the extent to which these conditions exempt them from being classified as successful agers and different trajectories of disease, disability and longevity across women's later life. Methods We used survey data from 12,432 participants of the 1921–26 birth cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health from 1996 (age 70–75) to 2016 (age 90–95). Repeated measures latent class analysis (RMLCA) identified trajectories of the development of disease with or without disability and according to longevity. Bivariate analyses and multivariable multinomial logistic regression models were used to examine the association between participants' baseline characteristics and membership of the latent classes. Results Over one-third of women could be considered to be successful agers when in their early 70s, few women could still be classified in this category throughout their later life or by the end of the study when they were in their 90s (~1%). RMLCA identified six trajectory groups including managed agers long survivors (9.0%) with disease but little disability, usual agers long survivors (14.9%) with disease and disability, usual agers (26.6%) and early mortality (25.7%). A small group of women having no major disease or disability well into their 80s were identified as successful agers (5.5%). A final group, missing surveys (18.3%), had a high rate of non-death attrition. Groups were differentiated by a number of social and health factors including marital status, education, smoking, body mass index, exercise and social support. Conclusions The study shows different trajectories of disease and disability in a cohort of ageing women, over time and through to very old ages. While some women continue into very old age with no disease or disability, many more women live long with disease but little disability, remaining independent beyond their capacity to be classified as successful agers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable research regarding the adaption to functional decline associated with advanced (Stage IV) Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This research has, however, primarily focused on physical and interventional strategies to manage disease progression and symptom burden, as opposed to the psychosocial strategies. To address this paucity, the current research explored the psychosocial strategies people with Stage IV COPD use to maintain quality of life towards the end of life. Eleven older people with Stage IV COPD living in regional Australia were interviewed to explore their experiences of ageing with COPD. The research used a theory-led analysis, informed by a Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenological methodology, to examine participant data in relation to selection, optimisation and compensation theory (SOC). The participant stories reflected the use of selective strategies, from which a hierarchy of priority tasks emerged. Participants optimised their capacity to perform high priority tasks using a range of pragmatic and instinctive responses to ongoing change, which became more and more conscious and deliberate over time. Additionally, compensatory strategies more traditionally associated with COPD management were used to reduce the impact of symptoms. It is through the participant descriptions and perception of optimisation and compensation strategies and how they were implemented that the wider theme of 'mind over matter' emerged. The use of these strategies to adapt physically and psychosocially to COPD shows how the participants demonstrated resilience and used 'successful ageing' strategies to cope with ongoing functional decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ageing Australian farmers face many uncertainties associated with wider social, economic and climate change. Significantly for many farmers, ageing means the end not only of a life-long occupation but the end of the farm that has often been in the family for many generations. In turn, the prospect of this discontinuity breaches long-held cultural images of Australian farming and farmers. For individual male farmers approaching retirement age, the lack of succession and discontinuation of the family's ownership of, and attachment to the land, poses threats for social and personal identity. This paper examines the narratives of three male, baby-boom Australian farmers to tease out the impact of ageing and the possible loss of the family farm on the ways that they construct their situations and their self-identity. It illustrates the narrative practices that these men employ as they work to validate their self-identities within particular narrative environments, and through a range of outmoded and contemporary material conditions that mediate their selves and lives. The approach exemplified in this paper focuses on the processes and phases of analysis to show how the farmers craft their narrative as well as the individuality, complexity and coherence of their accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By 2050, the number of people in Australia aged over 85 is expected to quadruple. Yet, from a socio-psychological research perspective, little is known about the experiences of people who continue to live at home during late old age (85 years and over), a period when challenging problems associated with ageing escalate and threaten to compromise independence. Utilising a qualitative methodology, the subjective lived experience of 23 very old adults (19 women, four men, with a mean age of 90.7 years, range 85–101 years) who live independently in rural Australia were elicited. The aims of the research were to understand their thoughts and feelings about ageing in place at home, and what psychological, social and practical adaptive strategies they employ to cope with difficulties encountered during very old age. In-depth interviews were analysed in an interpretive phenomenological tradition of thematic analysis, interpretation of paradigm cases and interpretation of exemplars. Participants described how historical, cultural and environmental contexts shaped their everyday thoughts, activities and what was meaningful for them. The findings add to our understanding of the largely unnarrated lives of the very old, suggest a need for person-centred home-care assessment processes and aid significant others (family, friends and neighbours) to understand better what very old adults need to live independently. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we introduce the idea of the bio-socio-material body to think through the body politics that emerge within the nexus of health, well-being and domestic energy consumption as people age. Our work draws upon an ethnographic study with older Australians in regional New South Wales, Australia. We enrich social practice theory conceptualisations by foregrounding the body as a dynamic bio-socio-material entity that shapes and is shaped by practices. In doing so, we draw attention to the body politics of managing health, well-being and energy consumption while trying to age successfully. We identify that the bio-socio-material dimensions of the body play an important role in how health, well-being and energy practices are performed. Energy practices are bound up in understandings of health and well-being as an ongoing and contingent process. Here, the use of energy and appliances becomes integral to how people negotiate and work towards successful ageing. We found that embodied practices of health, well-being and energy consumption are linked to biological, emotional, affective, social and material concerns that create body politics. These include tensions and challenges relating to health and vitality, caring for the sick and the dying, maintaining good mental health, the affordances of buildings and appliances, energy affordability and billing anxiety, social connectedness, and pleasures and pains. We raise questions emerging from our research on the implications for successful ageing. We call for attention to how health, well-being and energy are imbricated and for policy and programmes that better support older people to navigate the nexus of health, well-being and energy consumption as they age., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The authors discuss the use of repeated latent class analysis (LCA) in a study to identify the latent ageing trajectories of older Australian women. Highlights include LCA as an efficient data reduction technique that allows the objective identification of underlying patterns within data, factors associated with class membership, and a six-class model chosen based on the Akaike Information Criterion and Bayesian Information Criterion scores.

Purpose : Government strategies are putting increasing emphasis on sustaining the capacity of older persons to continue living independently in their own homes to ease strain on aged care services. The aim of this study was to understand the experiences and strategies that older people utilize to remain living at home from their own perspective. Methods : A grounded theory methodology was used to explore the actions and strategies used by persons over the age of 65 to enable them to remain living in their own homes. Data were collected from 21 women and men in three focus group discussions and 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews. Results : The data revealed that the central process participants used to hold momentum and sustain living at home involves a circular process in which older people acknowledge change and make ongoing evaluations and decisions about ageing at home. Conclusion : These findings have implications for informing policy and service provision by identifying appropriate resources and services to promote successful ageing at home.

Objectives: As populations age it is important to minimize the time people live in a less than successful state of ageing. Our aim was to identify predictors of successful ageing., Study Design: At baseline (1990-1994), demographic, anthropometric, health, social connectedness and behavioural data were collected for 41,514 men and women participating in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. Only those born in Australia, New Zealand and UK were included in this analysis. At follow-up in 2003-2007 data on health conditions, physical disability and psychological stress were collected and used to define successful ageing. A total of 5512 eligible participants with full data who were aged 70 and over, were included in this longitudinal analysis., Outcome Measures: Successful ageing at follow-up was defined as aged 70 years or over and absence of diabetes, heart attack, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, angioplasty, stroke, cancer; impairment, perceived major difficulty with physical functioning; and low risk of psychological distress., Results: A body mass index in the healthy range, low waist/hip ratio, not smoking, being physically active, and not having arthritis, asthma, hypertension, or gallstones were associated prospectively with successful ageing. There was no evidence for an association of social connectedness with successful ageing., Conclusions: A healthy lifestyle and maintenance of healthy weight, but not social connectedness, may improve the chances of ageing successfully by our definition. Social connectedness may be related to a perception of ageing well, but it does not appear to help avoid the usual conditions associated with ageing., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)