Future time perspective as a key factor for healthy longevity

Abstract

Understanding the best predictors of healthy longevity is critical to planning effective strategies. Typically, indicators of physical health, socioeconomics and demographics are analysed, but less attention has been paid to investigating behavioural predictors. This is striking because there is evidence that behavioural and psychological factors - in particular, cognitive functioning, positive emotions, self-control, and lifestyle - are strongly associated with physical health, healthy longevity, active old age and better survival rates. Most of these psychological variables involve the delay of gratification in the present in pursuit of future rewards and thus tap into the psychological perception of time. Building on previous longitudinal research, this presentation proposes that future perspective is a crucial psychological variable for understanding healthy longevity, impacting adaptive behaviours, financial planning, and emotional well-being. The aim of this project is to assess, through a survey, the time perspective of older adults and their association with healthy habits, savings behaviour, and well-being and to analyse its predictive capacity for healthy longevity. The future results could contribute to the design of public policies to reduce the gap between "lasting" and "living well" by providing robust psychological predictors. By knowing the relationship between time perspective and longevity, preventive and interventive actions could be developed to promote future perspective in the target population.