healthy ageing - nhs senate yorkshire · complex and include: • ill health and disability •...

Healthy ageing

Alison Iliff, Health and Wellbeing Programme Manager

Whole Systems Approach to Ageing Well, 27 September 2018

What is Healthy Ageing? World Health Organisation definition: the process of developing and

maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age

This includes a person’s ability to:

• meet their basic needs

• to learn, grow and make decisions

• to be mobile

• to build and maintain relationships

• to contribute to society

2 Healthy Ageing. Whole System Approach to Ageing Well, 27 September 2018

Why is healthy ageing important?


The global ageing population


• The number of people today aged

60 and over has doubled since

1980.

• The number of people aged 80

years will almost quadruple to

395 million between now and

2050.

• Within the next five years, the

number of adults aged 65 and

over will outnumber children

under the age of 5.

• Between 2000 and 2050, the

proportion of the world’s

population over 60 years will

double from about 11% to 22%.

Age distribution: UK

0 to 15 years (%) 16 to 64 years (%) Aged 65 and over

(%) UK population

1976 24.5 61.2 14.2

56,216,121

1986 20.5 64.1 15.4

56,683,835

1996 20.7 63.5 15.9

58,164,374

2006 19.2 64.9 15.9

60,827,067

2016 18.9 63.1 18.0

65,648,054

2026 18.8 60.7 20.5

69,843,515

2036 18.0 58.2 23.9

73,360,907

2046 17.7 57.7 24.7

76,342,235


Source: Office for National Statistics

Facts and figures

• A baby girl born today can expect to live to the age of 83, a baby boy

to 79.

• One in three will reach their 100th birthday

• Globally the number of over 60s has doubled since 1980

• By 2050 the number of over 80s is expected to quadruple

BUT…

• 40% of over 65s in the UK have a life-limiting long-term health

condition (eg diabetes, respiratory disease, CVD, cancer, dementia)

• There are marked inequalities between the most and the least

deprived areas


Healthy later life?


Life course approach to ageing well

• Waiting until state pension age is too late

• 1001 Critical Days

• Risk-taking and health promoting behaviours

• Inequalities persist across generations


Mid-life approaches to healthy ageing


45-55:

- Physical Activity

- Menopause

55+

- Social isolation &

loneliness

- Vitamin D

- Pre-retirement

40-65:

- Risk reduction messages

- Making Every Contact

Count

40-74:

- NHS Health check

60- 74:

- Bowel Cancer Screening

- Falls prevention

- Abdominal aortic aneurysm

(AAA) screening (men, 65yrs)

- Flu, pneumococcal, shingles

vaccination

50-70:

- Breast screening

75+

- Sight tests

- Hearing tests

- Strength and

Balance

National priorities for healthy ageing

• Productive healthy ageing

• Increase awareness of lifestyle interventions and collaborate with system

leaders to scale these interventions with the older population to increase

healthy life expectancy

• Older people’s mental health, including social isolation, loneliness and

dementia.

• Raise awareness of dementia risk reduction and drive behaviour change

in midlife and later years

• Musculoskeletal health including falls prevention

• Promote primary falls prevention with a particular focus on older adults

• ‘Non-traditional’ inequalities in later life

13 Healthy ageing slides for medical students. April 2018

Age friendly communities

• Physical environment – housing, transport, street furniture, toilets,

• Feeling safe

• Participation – employment, volunteering, social activities

• Public services – accessible health and social care

• Communication and information

• Respect – countering ageism


Physical environment

Image source: DWELL (Sheffield University), Romford Recorder


Employment

• More people aged 50+ are in

employment than ever before

• Reasons for leaving the workforce are

complex and include:

• Ill health and disability

• Caring responsibilities

• Redundancy

• Financial security

Keeping people in work for longer will

require a shift in mindset for both

employers and older people

10 Odessa programme: spring workshop March 2017 Healthy Ageing. Whole System Approach to Ageing Well, 27 September 2018

Isolation and loneliness in older age


Isolation

• Research over decades has found a fairly constant proportion –

10-13% - of older people feeling lonely often or always.

• Estimates place the number of people aged over 65 who are often

or always lonely at over one million.

Loneliness

The relationship between social isolation and loneliness is complex and

varies between individuals.

• 12% of those aged over 65 report isolation. (SCIE)

• Age UK report that approx. two-fifths all older people say the television

is their main company.

• 11% of older people are in contact with family less than once a month.

What this means in Y&H

• Working with colleagues focusing on other aspects of PH to ensure healthy

ageing is reflected

• Spatial planning – age friendly towns/cities, suitable housing stock,

accessible transport

• Physical activity – strength and balance, age appropriate opportunities,

wide range of ability

• Mental health – social isolation and loneliness, older carers, older service

users

• Oral health and nutrition – access to dental care, food deserts, ability and

desire to prepare nutritious meals, hydration

• Vulnerable groups – older people with learning disabilities, older

population in receipt of drug and alcohol services, older people who are/at

risk of homelessness


Key issues • Continuing rise in numbers and proportion of population in later life

• Increasing numbers living independently – and often alone – in later life

• Older carers – caring for grandchildren, children with disabilities, partners or

ageing parents

• Older workers

• Healthy ageing needs a life-course approach

19 Healthy ageing slides for medical students. April 2018

Any questions?

Alison Iliff

Public Health England

[email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

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