MEASURING ACTIVE AND HEALTHY AGEING: LESSONS FROM ACTIVE AGEING INDEX OF THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The active and healthy ageing measure reported here is calculated for the 28 European Union countries, with a specific focus on the current generation of older people and by using the latest data from multiple surveys. It covers diverse aspects of active and healthy ageing, by measuring older people’s contribution with respect to not just employment but also their unpaid familial, social and cultural contributions and their independent, healthy and secure living. The article presents the first-of-its-kind quantitative measure of active and healthy ageing in the literature on active and healthy ageing which hitherto has focused largely on concepts, definitions and public policy strategies. In this pursuit, an important contribution of this measure, referred to as the Active Ageing Index (‘AAI’), is that it also captures how countries differ with respect to capacity and enabling environments for active and healthy ageing. The AAI offers a breakdown not just by four domains of active and healthy ageing but also by gender. Key findings are that Sweden comes at the top of the country ranking, followed closely by Denmark, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands and Ireland. The four southern European countries (Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta) are middle-ranked countries. Greece and many of the Central European countries are at the bottom, highlighting much greater untapped potentials of active and healthy ageing among older people in these countries and a need for greater policy efforts. Women fare worse than men in most countries, identifying a need for an emphasis on reducing gender disparity in experiences of active and healthy ageing. The AAI tool developed has the potential to identify the social policy mechanisms behind the differential achievements of active and healthy ageing, for example, what active and healthy ageing strategies have driven top performers, and in what respect the bottom-ranked countries have lagged behind.

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Study protocol for Prospective RELOC-AGE: A longitudinal mixed-methods study exploring associations of housing, relocation and active and healthy ageing in Sweden (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.31137 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Magnus Zingmark ◽

Jonas Björk ◽

Marianne Granbom ◽

Giedre Gefenaite ◽

Frida Nordeström ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Data Collection ◽

Healthy Ageing ◽

Health Care Use ◽

Active Ageing ◽

Telephone Interviews ◽

Active And Healthy Ageing ◽

Home Help ◽

The Individual ◽

Housing Attributes

BACKGROUND Background: While housing and neighbourhood features have the potential to impact opportunities for active ageing, there is a lack of knowledge related to how older people reason regarding their housing situation and how housing and fulfilment of relocation are associated with active and healthy ageing. OBJECTIVE Objective: The objectives of Prospective RELOC-AGE are to study housing choices and relocation and explore effects on active and healthy ageing among men and women 55 years or older in Sweden considering relocation. METHODS Methods: The estimated sample (n=2800) will include people aged 55+ being listed for relocation at either of two housing companies: a local public housing company in Southern Sweden and a national condominium provider (NCP). Prospective RELOC-AGE has a two-level longitudinal mixed-methods design and include quantitative surveys (implemented by a professional survey company) and a telephone interview for a baseline data collection in 2021, with follow-ups with the same procedures in 2022 and 2023. The survey and interviews include questions related to present housing and neighbourhood, relocation plans and expectations, a range of perspectives on active and healthy ageing, and demographics. Linking to national registers will provide additional data on e.g., home help and health care use, objective housing and neighbourhood characteristics. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04765696 [1]. To explore what housing attributes older adults considering relocation find important, and to what extent, when making their decisions on housing, we will develop a Discrete Choice Experiment to be implemented with a subsample of participants. Further, a Grounded Theory (GT) approach will be applied to collect in-depth interview data from participants who have moved to another dwelling, within 6 months after the move. A follow-up interview 12 months later will focus on participants´ deepened experience over time in terms of fulfilled expectations relocation experiences. RESULTS Results: As of submission of this protocol (June 2021) recruitment has commenced with approximately n=960 respondents to the survey and with ongoing telephone interviews. We anticipate recruitment and data collection based on surveys and interviews to continue during 2021. CONCLUSIONS Conclusions: Prospective RELOC-AGE has the capacity to generate new policy-relevant knowledge on associations of housing, relocation and active and healthy ageing. Such knowledge is relevant for the development of proactive approaches to housing in old age on the individual, group as well as societal levels. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04765696

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Determinants of Active and Healthy Ageing in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Cameroon

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17093038 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (9) ◽

pp. 3038

Author(s):

Fomba Louisette Naah ◽

Aloysius Mom Njong ◽

Jude Ndzifon Kimengsi

Keyword(s):

Focus Group ◽

Community Support ◽

Healthy Ageing ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Gender Mainstreaming ◽

Active Ageing ◽

Snowball Sampling ◽

Active And Healthy Ageing ◽

Sub Saharan

This paper examines the determinants and policy implications of active and healthy ageing in Sub-Saharan Africa, taking the case of Bamenda, in Cameroon. Specifically, the study sought to identify and explore the determinants of active and healthy ageing using a mixed-methods approach involving qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Focus group discussions were conducted complemented by a survey (random and snowball sampling) using a structured questionnaire. Narratives and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data generated from the focus group discussion and Tobit regression was employed to analyze the multiple determinants of active ageing by dimensions and on a global scale in Cameroon. Results identified three key dimensions of active and healthy ageing: employment/livelihood options (EL), community support and health (CH) and housing and living in Bamenda (HL). The regression results reveal gender bias in active ageing, a non-effect of education and health on active ageing, and a positive effect of income on active and healthy ageing. This study contributes, among others, to the competence–environmental press theory on active ageing with regards to unbundling context specific determinants of active and healthy ageing. It equally derives policy considerations with regards to gender mainstreaming and the identification of age friendly income earning options to enhance the active and healthy ageing process.

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Influence of Active and Healthy Ageing on Quality of Life Changes: Insights from the Comparison of Three European Countries

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18084152 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (8) ◽

pp. 4152

Author(s):

Alba Ayala ◽

Carmen Rodríguez-Blázquez ◽

Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga ◽

Giorgi Beridze ◽

Laetitia Teixeira ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Older People ◽

Social Participation ◽

Principal Component ◽

Healthy Ageing ◽

European Countries ◽

Active And Healthy Ageing ◽

Health Aging ◽

Changes Over Time

This study aimed to analyze the determinants of quality of life (QoL) in older people in three European countries (Portugal, Spain and Sweden). A sample of 7589 participants in waves 4 (2011) and 6 (2015) of the Survey on Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) project, aged 50 and over and living in Portugal, Spain and Sweden, was included. The CASP-12 scale was used to measure QoL. A principal component analysis was performed to group preselected variables related to active and healthy ageing into the dimensions of health, social participation, and lifelong learning. A linear regression model was built using the change in CASP-12 scores over the 4-year follow-up as the dependent variable, including the interactions between country and each independent variable in the model. After four years, the average QoL increased in Portugal (difference = 0.8, p < 0.001), decreased in Spain (−0.8, p < 0.001), and remained constant in Sweden (0.1, p = 0.408). A significant country-participation component interaction (p = 0.039) was found. In Spain, a higher participation (β = 0.031, p = 0.002) was related to a higher QoL improvement at 4 years, but not in Sweden or Portugal. Physical health and emotional components (β = 0.099, p < 0.001), functional ability (β = 0.044, p = 0.023), and cognitive and sensory ability (β = 0.021, p = 0.026) were associated with QoL changes over time in all countries. The country-specific associations between health, social participation and QoL should be taken into account when developing public health policies to promote QoL among European older people.

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Determinants Of Healthy Ageing For Older People In European Countries – A Spatio-Temporal Approach

Comparative Economic Research ◽

10.1515/cer-2016-0043 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 19 (5) ◽

pp. 157-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jadwiga Suchecka ◽

Bogusława Urbaniak

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Economic Development ◽

Life Expectancy ◽

European Commission ◽

Good Health ◽

Healthy Ageing ◽

European Countries ◽

Men And Women ◽

Active And Healthy Ageing ◽

Life Years

The European Commission (EC) has identified active and healthy ageing (AHA) as a major societal challenge mutual to European countries. This issue has increased in importance due to the progressive ageing observed in European societies, that force authorities to take initiatives for support the activity of the elderly. One of the initiatives, widely recognised is The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, which strive to enabling EU citizens to lead healthy, active and independent lives while ageing. The positive effect of actions for the AHA will be extension of the life in good health duration of EU citizens by two years by 2020. This is an important issue, as in 2013, women who have reached the age of 65 years in UE28 were facing on average 21.3 years of further life years and only 8.6 years (on average this amounted for 40.4 % of life expectancy) accounted for living in health, whereas for males, this ratio was estimated on 8.5 years in health of the anticipated further 17.9 years (47.5% of further life duration). Life expectancy in good health in older age is influenced by many different factors, i.e. cultural, social, economic and accessibility to health services and the quality of provided treatment. The last aspect is related to both the economic development of the country and the health care system management. The significant factor that has been increasingly emphasised in documentation of World Health Organisation or European Commission, concerns the investment in public and individual health. Taking into account the multivariate impact of objective and subjective factors on life expectancy in good health of elderly, the Authors decided to conduct the multidimensional comparative analysis for EU countries, including Norway, Switzerland and Iceland as well. Among the objective factors Authors distinguished: proportion of population (men and women) aged 65 years and more, economic development of the countries measured by GDP per capita, healthy life years expectancy in absolute values for males and females at 65 years, health care expenditures in PPS per inhabitant aged 65+, whereas the group of subjective characteristics consisted of: self-perceived health for people aged 65+ and self-reported unmet needs for medical services. The article aims to investigate the relationship between the length of the further life in healthy for men and women aged 65 years and selected factors in European countries in the period 2005–2012. For this purpose, following methods were used: 1/ spatial distribution of characteristics – rates of change in selected periods: 2005 and 2012, 2/ tests for dependencies using correlograms and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients, 3/ cluster analysis: on the basis of Ward’s methods spatial similarities (among countries) were indicated. As the source of data the Eurostat database were used.

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What is the best way to take internet usage into consideration in the different variants of the active ageing index?

Society and Economy ◽

10.1556/204.2019.003 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

pp. 193-207

Author(s):

Éva Berde ◽

Izabella Kuncz

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Older People ◽

Survey Data ◽

Healthy Ageing ◽

Internet Usage ◽

The Internet ◽

Active Ageing ◽

Active And Healthy Ageing ◽

Distance Indicator ◽

Definition Of

The paper provides a brief description of the Active Ageing Index (AAI). This indicator, introduced in 2012, aims to measure the potential of older people for active and healthy ageing. The indicator is constructed from European Union survey data, and these results are weighted with coefficients determined by experts. One of the variables from the surveys measures the proportion of older people using the internet at least once a week. We argue that such regular internet usage does not show too much variation in this era of the ubiquitous internet, so a more sophisticated definition of internet usage must be taken into consideration. Our discussion contains three different AAI variants: the original expert-based, the Djurovic et al. (2017) I-distance indicator, and our factor-based index.

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AIoTES: Setting the principles for a Semantic Interoperable and modern IoT-enabled Reference Architecture for Active and Healthy Ageing ecosystems

Computer Communications ◽

10.1016/j.comcom.2021.06.010 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Clara I. Valero ◽

Alejandro M. Medrano Gil ◽

Regel Gonzalez-Usach ◽

Matilde Julian ◽

Giuseppe Fico ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Healthy Ageing ◽

Reference Architecture ◽

Active And Healthy Ageing

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Perceptions and experiences of frailty interventions: quantitative and qualitative results from a survey of partners within the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA)

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x17000265 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (9) ◽

pp. 1843-1867 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

HOLLY GWYTHER ◽

RICHARD COOKE ◽

RACHEL SHAW ◽

MAURA MARCUCCI ◽

ANTONIO CANO ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Mixed Method ◽

Online Survey ◽

Healthy Ageing ◽

Social Aspect ◽

Free Text ◽

Active And Healthy Ageing ◽

Perceived Benefit ◽

Inductive Thematic Analysis ◽

Method Approach

ABSTRACTThe European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA) was launched by the European Commission in 2011 to promote innovation in ageing research. This paper explores the experiences of partners delivering frailty interventions within Europe, registering their programmes with the EIP-AHA. Data were collected using an online survey from 21 partners in seven countries. A mixed-method approach was used with inductive thematic analysis of free-text responses to improve data richness. Responses indicated that there was a lack of consistency between EIP-AHA partners in methods of defining, screening and measuring for frailty and pre-frailty. Open responses to survey questions about intervention facilitators, moderators and barriers were coded into two themes: working with stakeholders and project management. We concluded that EIP-AHA partners are providing interventions addressing physical, cognitive and wellbeing elements of frailty. However, there needs to be an increase in the proportion of interventions that consistently apply valid methods of screening and/or measuring frailty and pre-frailty. Most, but not all projects are targeting pre-frail older adults, suggesting an appropriate balance of prevention in a useful ‘intervention window’ but also a growing understanding that frailty at later stages is amenable to intervention. Findings suggest design manipulations to improve outcomes and adherence to interventions, specifically inclusion of a perceived benefit/reward for older adults, e.g. a social aspect or health-care promotion.

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