Functional Age and Age-Related Measures

Abstract

The six estimates of functional age (laboratory, auditory, anthropological, ability, personality, social) that have been developed from data of the Normative Aging Study are based on measures that correlate with chronological age. The significance of these predicted or statistical ages obtained must be determined by showing that a man whose statistical age is, for example, markedly greater than his calendar age is in fact biologically and behaviorally older than a coeval whose statistical age is considerably less than his calendar age. Because predicted or statistical age is only an empirical estimate of functional age, it is subject to error inherent in the measures themselves as well as in the special nature of the study population. Longitudinal follow-up will provide the best way to see if the predicted statistical ages described will serve as useful indicators of rapid or slow aging.