'Youthful mindset' key to longer, healthier life? Simply feeling younger wards off disability, disease for older adults - Study Finds

Across multiple Israeli medical facilities, researchers tracked 194 older patients (ages 73-84) as they underwent a rehabilitation program for osteoporotic fractures or stroke.

Meanwhile, the team measured functional independence using the Functional Independence Measurement (FIM) test on two occasions: once during the participants’ admission to the rehab program and again at discharge.

Sure enough, patients who reported feeling younger subjectively than their actual age at admission showed better functional independence at discharge — roughly one month later.

“The effect of subjective age at admission on functional independence at discharge was confirmed,” says Prof.

“However, the reverse effect — that of functional independence at admission on subjective age at discharge — was not confirmed.

Incredibly, study authors deemed subjective age the single strongest predictor of rehabilitation outcomes, trumping even patients’ chronological age and additional health conditions.

In conclusion, study authors argue that doctors need to account for patients’ subjective ages while designing rehabilitation protocols.