Active Ageing: The Need to Address Sub-National Diversity. An Evidence-Based Approach for Italy

Abstract

While active ageing has emerged as a main strategy to address the challenges of population ageing in Europe, recent research has stressed the need to increase knowledge on within-country differences to promote active ageing through appropriate policy responses. This article draws on the Active Ageing Index (AAI) to capture recent trends in active ageing in Italy with a focus on sub-national diversity. To this end, we compute AAI breakdowns by region separately for men and women for four different years: 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2018. Then, we use linear regression to describe the geographical and sex-specific patterns of change in the AAI over the considered period. The results demonstrate the diversity of regional outcomes and trends in the active ageing of Italian men and women, indicating that the widening geographic gap deserves further consideration by national and regional authorities in designing and implementing active ageing policies. By showing the persistence of disparities in the value of the indicator to the disadvantage of women, results also suggest the need to further integrate both the gender dimension and the life-cycle perspective into active ageing strategies. This article provides an example of how the AAI can be used as a practical tool by policy makers to monitor active ageing trends and outcomes at the sub-national level, and to identify target areas that require further action.

Active Ageing in Italy: A Systematic Review of National and Regional Policies

“…9)—resulted with very few (if no) policies, both at the national and regional level. The need for improving AA policies for combating gender inequalities in Italy was also recently raised and demonstrated [ 47 ]. Certainly, initiatives for addressing equal opportunities and redevelopment of urban and rural environments exist to a certain extent.…”

Trends in the Use of Home LTC Services in Large, Medium and Small Municipalities in Italy: Lessons for the Post-COVID-19 Reappraisal

“…This is a lesson for the post-COVID-19 pandemic period: a new design and greater investments in the national public home care service system are undelayable, in particular to rebalance Italian geographic disparities (cf. [27,31]).…”

“…Italy has large regional differences in public resources availability, which, due to decentralisation of health and social public expenditure, has a direct effect on local levels of home care service provision. Meanwhile, increasing demographic differences are evident between metropolitan areas and small municipalities and between southern and northern areas in terms of depopulation and population ageing [27]. The richest northern metropolitan areas attract more and more people from small municipalities and southern areas, mostly young, accelerating the ageing both of small and of southern communities, and dispersing families [28].…”

Active Aging Policies Targeting Health and Care During the of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Thematic Analysis of Italian National and Regional Policies

“…The project was carried out by the National Institute of Health and Science on Aging (IRCCS INRCA) with funding from the Department for Family Policies (DFP), an office of the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Previous results on policy analysis (Barbabella, Cela, et al, 2022), policy implementation and recommendations (Lucantoni, Principi, et al, 2022), and the heterogeneity of AA across the country (Principi, Di Rosa, et al, 2022; Zannella et al, 2021) have been published elsewhere.…”