healthy and active ageing - EuroHealthNet's Healthy Ageing Website

1. what is understood by ‘healthy ageing’
Increasing life expectancy has led to higher expectations amongst people in the EU not only to live longer,
but to live longer with lower levels of morbidity and fewer years of disability, and with a high quality of life.
Medical advances are increasingly making longer healthy life-spans possible, while escalating health and
social costs mean that there is a stronger interest amongst older people and society as a whole to promote
health in old age. The WHO writes that investing in health throughout life produces dividends for societies
everywhere. 1
As mortality rates between countries in the EU and also amongst different groups within the EU countries
varies considerably, the age at which an individual is considered and considers him/herself ‘older’ also
varies. According to Mark Gorman at HelpAge International, the ageing process is of course a biological
reality which has its own dynamic, largely beyond human control. However, it is also subject to the
constructions by which each society makes sense of old age. In the developed world, chronological time
plays a paramount role. The age of 60 or 65, roughly equivalent to retirement ages in most developed
countries, is said to be the beginning of old age. 2 Many WHO documents often define ‘older people’ as
those over 60 years of age. 3
This report looks at policies, programmes and interventions to improve or sustain health of the ‘youngerold’,
defined as 55-60+. While many people in the EU of this age would not define themselves as ‘old’,
it is important to focus on this ‘younger’ age group in order to take preventative measures to stave off
health-related problems in the next decades, as the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total EU
population is projected to rise from 85 million in 2008 to 151 million in 2060. 4 People aged 80 years or over
are projected to almost triple from 22 million in 2008 to 61 million in 2060. 4 It should be noted that to really
address healthy ageing, preventive measures should start at early childhood and be adopted throughout
the life course. 5
While sustaining health calls for interventions that address physical health, such as good nutrition, adequate
levels of physical activity and good healthcare, it is certainly not limited to this. According to the World Health
Organisation’s classic definition (1947), health is not merely ‘the absence of infirmity or disease’, but ‘a state
of complete physical, mental and social well- being’. That this belief is widely held, and that health is a means
to successful ageing, and not an end in itself is reflected in the responses to a survey that was conducted
in the UK, asking people aged 50+ what they felt were the main constituents of successful ageing. 6 While
health and functioning were the most common responses, these were rarely given on their own. Many
other factors such as ‘well-being’ and ‘mental psychological health’ are also linked to successful ageing.
1 http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/ageing/ageing_facts/en/index4.html
2 Gorman M. Development and the rights of older people. In: Randel J, et al., eds. The ageing and development report:
poverty, independence and the world’s older people. London, Earthscan Publications Ltd.,1999:3-21.
3 http://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/ageingdefnolder/en/index.html
4 The ratio of the number of elderly persons of an age when they are generally economically inactive (usually aged 65 and
over) to the number of persons of working age (usually from 15 to 64). European Commission, EUROSTAT
5 http://www.health-gradient.eu/
6 Sarkisian CA, Hays RD, Mangione CM. Do older adults expect to age successfully? The associations between expectations
regarding aging and beliefs regarding healthcare among older adults. J Am Geriat Soc 2002;50:1837-43
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