Developmental trajectories of successful aging among older adults in China: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

This study aimed to identify potential trajectory groups of successful aging in older adults and to explore the influencing factors of each trajectory group. We used four waves of longitudinal data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study from 2011 to 2018, which involved 1,949 older adults. The developmental trajectories were determined using growth mixture modeling (GMM), and the influencing factors of each trajectory group were identified using multinomial logistic analysis. We identified three different groups of successful aging trajectories: high level-declining group (45%), medium level-declining group (39%), and low level-steady group (16%). Gender, education, marital status, place of residence, self-rated health, life satisfaction, and retirement pension were the influencing factors for the high level-declining group. Influencing factors for the medium level-declining group included gender, education, self-rated health, life satisfaction, and retirement pension. Healthcare professionals should formulate targeted measures according to different trajectory categories to promote successful aging in older adults.