Centenarian Studies: Important Contributors to Our Understanding of the Aging Process and Longevity

In the course of the next 10 years, say the watchers of consumer trends, a new generation—Generation C—will emerge. Born after 1990, they are referred to as “digital natives,” now beginning to attend university and enter the workforce, they are expected to transform the world as we know it [1]. The “C” stands for “connected,” “communicating,” “content-centric,” “creative,” and “change”; however, it may just as well stand for “centenarian” as for the first time in history many of this birth cohort will live 100 years or more. The fact is that people are living longer and generally healthier lives than ever before. Mortality, and by some measures incident morbidity and disability, is being delayed considerably in today's elderly [2]. As a result, centenarians, once considered rare, are now becoming commonplace. Indeed, they are the fastest growing demographic group of the world's population, their numbers having roughly doubled every decade since 1950, and they are globally projected to more than quintuple between 2005 and 2030 [3].