Healthy Ageing Factors

Factors Influencing Healthy Ageing

• Longer life expectancy provides opportunities for personal and social contributions, but these depend heavily on health.
• Evidence suggests that the proportion of life in good health has remained constant, implying that additional years are often lived in poor health.

Impact of Health on Ageing

• Good health enables older people to maintain their ability to do what they value, similar to younger people.
• Poor health in older age leads to declines in physical and mental capacity, with negative implications for individuals and society.

Determinants of Healthy Ageing

• Most variations in older people's health are due to physical and social environments, as well as personal characteristics (sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status).
• Environments in childhood and even fetal development have long-term effects on ageing.
• Physical and social environments affect health directly or indirectly through opportunities, decisions, and health behaviour.

Healthy Behaviours and Environments

• Maintaining healthy behaviours throughout life (balanced diet, regular physical activity, no tobacco use) reduces the risk of non-communicable diseases and improves physical and mental capacity.
• Supportive physical and social environments (safe public buildings, accessible transport, walkable spaces) enable people to remain active and engaged despite losses in capacity.

Public-Health Response to Ageing

• A comprehensive public-health response should consider both individual and environmental approaches to address losses associated with ageing.
• It should also focus on promoting recovery, adaptation, and psychosocial growth in older adults.

Factors Influencing Healthy Ageing

• Longer life expectancy provides opportunities for personal and social contributions, but these depend heavily on health.
• Evidence suggests that the proportion of life in good health has remained constant, implying that additional years are often lived in poor health.

Impact of Health on Ageing

• Good health enables older people to maintain their ability to do what they value, similar to younger people.
• Poor health in older age leads to declines in physical and mental capacity, with negative implications for individuals and society.

Determinants of Healthy Ageing

• Most variations in older people's health are due to physical and social environments, as well as personal characteristics (sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status).
• Environments in childhood and even fetal development have long-term effects on ageing.
• Physical and social environments affect health directly or indirectly through opportunities, decisions, and health behaviour.

Healthy Behaviours and Environments

• Maintaining healthy behaviours throughout life (balanced diet, regular physical activity, no tobacco use) reduces the risk of non-communicable diseases and improves physical and mental capacity.
• Supportive physical and social environments (safe public buildings, accessible transport, walkable spaces) enable people to remain active and engaged despite losses in capacity.

Public-Health Response to Ageing

• A comprehensive public-health response should consider both individual and environmental approaches to address losses associated with ageing.
• It should also focus on promoting recovery, adaptation, and psychosocial growth in older adults.

Learn about the factors that influence healthy ageing and how it affects opportunities and contributions of older people to their families and communities.