Indicators for Healthy Ageing — A Debate

Abstract

Definitions of healthy ageing include survival to a specific age, being free of chronic diseases, autonomy in activities of daily living, wellbeing, good quality of life, high social participation, only mild cognitive or functional impairment, and little or no disability. The working group Epidemiology of Ageing of the German Association of Epidemiology organized a workshop in 2012 with the aim to present different indicators used in German studies and to discuss their impact on health for an ageing middle-European population. Workshop presentations focused on prevalence of chronic diseases and multimorbidity, development of healthy life expectancy at the transition to oldest-age, physical activity, assessment of cognitive capability, and functioning and disability in old age. The communication describes the results regarding specific indicators for Germany, and hereby contributes to the further development of a set of indicators for the assessment of healthy ageing.

Distribution of Mini‐Mental State Examination scores among urban community‐dwelling older adults in Japan

“…A growing number of older adults live either alone or with an older partner, and this tends to be more pronounced in urban areas. Therefore, public health focusing on healthy and independent living in the older adults has become a priority (Fuchs et al, 2013).…”

On the associations between physical activity and quality of life: findings from an Australian nationally representative panel survey

“…QoL is a key concept in health promotion and enhancing it is a recognised public health goal [2]. Unbiased and comprehensive analysis of QoL contributes to monitoring progress in achieving national health and wellbeing objectives and can help devising preventive and palliative interventions [2][3][4]. Consequently, research on QoL -and particularly on HRQoL -is of uttermost importance for the emergence of evidence-based policy and for the efficient and effective allocation of public resources [2].…”

Multimorbidity among elderly in Bangladesh

“…As developed countries undergo faster epidemiological transition and face a lot of problems due to chronic disease, the prevalence of multimorbidity is a greater concern for developed nations and has been studied in Europe, the Middle East, Australia, USA, Canada, and Sweden . It is estimated that about one in four adults experience multimorbidity, with half of older adults having three or more chronic conditions in the USA .…”