The economic well-being of community-dwelling centenarians

The economic well-being of community-dwelling and cognitively intact centenarians was compared to two younger cohorts in their 60s and 80s. Sources of income were significantly different for the 100-year-olds with fewer of them having employment earnings, Social Security benefits and retirement pensions. A higher percentage of centenarians received financial assistance from family members, were recipients of Supplemental Security Income and were participants in the Medicaid program. The poverty rate was the highest for the centenarians. Social comparison and relative deprivation theories were proposed as explanations of why over 95% of centenarians reported that financially they were doing the same or better than others their age, when by objective measures just the opposite would be expected.