Healthy Active Ageing
Across the world, people are living longer, with older people comprising a growing proportion of the world's population. [1] [2] In response, communities and governments need to rethink how ageing is valued, viewed and addressed.
There are many social and economic benefits to be achieved when older people are healthy, happy, active and engaged. [3] Preparing for an increasingly ageing population requires dedicated planning and a focus on health promotion and disease prevention across the life span. Built environments are integral to support this.
A Healthy Active Ageing framework features four key interconnected principles:
- ageing affects all ages across the life-cycle;
- physical activity improves the health and well-being of older people;
- social engagement provides the motivation to maintain healthy levels of physical activity; and
- key design features are needed to facilitate both the physical activity and social engagement required to support the highest possible quality of life for older people.
A Healthy Active Ageing lens can be applied to all the design features of Healthy Active by Design. If spaces are designed to encourage and support older people to remain active and socially connected, then these spaces and places will also deliver benefits to the wider community. A focus on intergenerational mixed-space usage, integration and social inclusion is critical to the creation of optimal spaces.
You can find out more on our Healthy Active Ageing supporting module.
Our Healthy Active Ageing Checklist provides practical guidance and a list of features to check whether an existing area or proposed project is age friendly. It’s a valuable tool to help support the health of older people in communities across Australia.
The National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) was established in 2019, as a partnership between Monash University and Peninsula Health. The NCHA invests in major research projects through their Living Labs research program.
The Living Labs program works across four key themes:
1. Healthy ageing across the lifespan
2. Dementia
3. Hospital and home
4. Health and care in aged care
The Living Lab website has a wealth of research and information to help guide some great healthy active ageing policies, projects and outcomes in built environments and local neighbourhoods across the country. The associated data platform provides access to the power of large data to develop, inform and influence outcomes for healthy active ageing. The platform incorporates high quality and integrated data systems to support research, evidence-based solutions and learning for high priority areas of health related to ageing. You can find out more, access the data platform: https://www.monash.edu/medicine/national-centre-for-healthy-ageing/data-platform
References
[1] Cohen DA, Ashwood JS, Scott MM, Overton A, Evenson KR, Staten LK, et al. Public parks and physical activity among adolescent girls. Pediatrics. 2006 Nov;118(5):e1381-9.
[2] Annerstedt van den Bosch M, Mudu P, Uscila V, Barrdahl M, Kulinkina A, Staatsen B, et al. Development of an urban green space indicator and the public health rationale. Scand J Public Health. 2016 Mar 16;44(2):159–67.
[3] Veitch J, Salmon J, Ball K. Children’s Perceptions of the Use of Public Open Spaces for Active Free-play. Child Geogr. 2007 Nov;5(4):409–22.