ABSTRACT
Recent longitudinal studies have in many aspects been able to contribute to new knowledge about normal ageing and to knowledge regarding the uncertain border-land between health and disease in higher age groups. This chapter focuses on the gerontological and geriatric population studies in Gothenburg which started in 1971 and which are still on their way. The aims of these studies are to offer health controls, to study normal ageing and disease in old age, to find reference values, to develop and evaluate medical and social intervention, and to prevent disease and handicap. An important information from longitudinal studies of the ageing process is for example that ageing does not necessarily mean a continuous decrease of functions from the moment maturity is reached at age 20–25 and forwards – as is often claimed in earlier literature. Psychological ageing has its basis in both biological and environmental processes, but the proportions between the two are impossible to express more exactly.
