Multiple roads to success: A latent class analysis on successful ageing among Hong Kong near-centenarians and centenarians (NCC)

Abstract

Notwithstanding the oldest-old cohort being the fastest-growing population in most ageing societies, characterizing successful ageing in adults of advanced age, such as nonagenarians and centenarians, remains challenging. This study investigated the successful ageing subphenotypes using the data from Hong Kong Centenarian Study 2. Between April 2021 and September 2022, 146 family caregivers of community-dwelling older adults aged 95 or above were interviewed by phone. Latent class analysis identified three classes—Overall Frail (46.6%) with poor mobility, cognitive and functional health, Nonambulant (37.0%) but good functional health, and Robust (16.4%) with overall good health—from 11 indicators based on caregivers’ reports. Although we found a low prevalence of fulfillment of all indicators of successful ageing, our findings will help care professionals appreciate the heterogeneity underlying partial successful ageing in this vulnerable cohort for segmented and targeted healthy longevity interventions.