AUTHOR=Zhang Zhucheng , Peng Chenxi , Li Zhuo , Li Jiaqiang , Li Yan , Pan Yuhang , Liu Ruihong , Chen Xiangdong 

TITLE=Development and validation of a successful aging prediction model for older adults in China based on health ecology theory

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1595540

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2025.1595540

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Background and aimAccelerated aging poses significant physical, psychological, and social health challenge to Chinese. Successful aging (SA) serves as a proactive approach to population aging, reflecting individual health status and quality of life, thereby enhancing the capacity for healthy living among the older adults. However, the complexity of SA measurement methods often hinders its application in community healthcare. Currently, there is a dearth of prediction model tailored for the older adults in community. This study aimed to develop and validate a prediction model for SA in Chinese community older adults.MethodsData were derived from the fifth wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), targeting community-dwelling older adults individuals over 60. Employing health ecology theory, we comprehensively utilized variables from community health records. The Shapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) method identified key variables contributing to outcome prediction. An extreme gradient boosting machine learning method was used to construct the prediction model for SA in Chinese community older adults. The final model was obtained through hyperparameter adjustment via 8-fold cross-validation. The model’s performance was evaluated using area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC), discriminant slope, calibration curves, decision curves, SHAP-based risk factor analysis, and comparison with other methods to assess differentiation, calibration, interpretability, and clinical utility.ResultsThe model incorporated variables available from community health records. SHAP indicated a robust importance ranking of variable features, with the most frequent top 16 features aligning with clinical practice, ensuring good interpretability and extensibility of the resulting prediction model. We used six machine learning methods to construct the prediction model. Among them, the extreme gradient boosting model demonstrated an AUROC of 0.78, a discrimination slope of 0.140, and a Brier score of 0.124. The proposed model is superior to other methods, and has outstanding discriminability and consistency. Decision curve analysis (DCA) indicated a higher clinical utility compared to other models.ConclusionWe proposed a prediction model for SA in Chinese community older adults based on health ecology theory and machine learning, which demonstrate excellent prediction performance, interpretability, and extensibility. The prediction model can be applied to community older population health management, promoting SA within community older adults.