Centenarians' views and experiences of longevity: a meta-ethnographic systematic review

Centenarians represent a growing demographic that remains under-theorized in gerontology. Subsumed within the broader category of the oldest old, they are often examined through a biomedical lens, which tends to frame extreme old age as the final stage of decline. While a number of qualitative, interview-based studies have explored centenarians' views and experiences, these accounts have not yet been systematically reviewed or conceptually integrated, leaving a gap in our understanding of this phase of life. This study aimed to synthesize and reinterpret existing qualitative research on centenarians.

Through six English-language databases, this meta-ethnography identified and included qualitative studies that captured the first-order constructs of centenarians and the second-order constructs of primary researchers, which informed our third-order interpretations. Study quality was appraised against the CASP Qualitative Checklist, and we followed the 19 steps of the eMERGe reporting guidelines.

From 28 included studies, involving a total count of 359 centenarians with potential sample overlap, five lines of argument were constructed: (a) reaching 100 as a continuation of everyday life, (b) resilience shaped by loss, (c) staying connected through people and space, (d) autonomy in physical and mental health, and (e) reconsidering the meaning of life and death after losing loved ones.

Our findings invite a reconsideration of late life as a space of continuous meaning-making, marked by intergenerational connection, resonant loss, and autonomy in care and end-of-life choices. Further research should incorporate centenarians who were not represented in the reviewed studies.