“Active aging” and the related terms “healthy aging,” “successful
aging,” “productive aging,” “aging well,” “living well,”
“senior wellness,” and “compression of morbidity” endorse
a radically nontraditional paradigm of human aging, which
includes gains as well as losses and which posits possible
improvement in future human health despite increasing longevity.
Each of these terms, discussed briefly below, foresees a
new paradigm for gerontology, based upon postponing functional
declines into older ages with a goal of postponement
of morbidity more than mortality, compressing morbidity
into a shorter period later in life, and decreasing cumulative
lifetime morbidity [1]. The new paradigm contrasts strikingly
with the old “Failures of Success” paradigm, where
improvements in longevity would inevitably lead to ever
larger numbers of persons in ever poorer health [2].