Robust aging among the young-old, old-old, and oldest-old.

This study defined and examined the interrelationships among four multicategory definitions of robust aging: productive involvement, affective status, functional status, and cognitive status. Data are from a sample of 1,644 adults aged 60 and older who participated in a nationwide household survey in 1986. The four robust aging indicators were minimally correlated, suggesting that they tap a multidimensional phenomenon. Several personal characteristics were found to distinguish robustly aging individuals from their less-well-functioning counterparts for at least one robust aging criterion. The most robustly aging individuals reported greater social contact, better health and vision, and fewer significant life events in the past three years than their less robustly aging counterparts. The data also indicated a linear age-related decrease in the proportion of respondents found in the most robust aging categories, but membership in the oldest-old cohort did not preclude one from being identified as aging robustly.