About active ageing

Research field:
Active and healthy ageing as an asset
< Social Innovations Database

Active ageing is a concept that requires critical analysis with the World Health Organisation’s policy framework for active ageing providing an initial definition:

The process of optimising opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. Active ageing applies to both individuals and population groups. It allows people to realise their potential for physical, social and mental well-being through the life course and participate in society according to their needs, desires and capacities, while providing them with adequate protection security and care they require assistance... to extend healthy life expectancy and quality of life for all people as they age, including those who are frail, disabled and in need of care.

– WHO, Active Ageing: A Policy Framework (2002:12)

Although there is often a tendency among policymakers to regard activity as being participation in the labour force or being physically active, this definition also applied to continuing participation in social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic affairs. Older people who are ill or live with disabilities can remain active contributors to their families, communities and nations.

Active ageing aims to extend healthy life expectancy and quality of life for all people as they age including those who are frail, disabled and in need of care. Policies and programmes that promote mental health and social connections are as important as those that improve physical health. In common with the SI agenda, the WHO approach shifts away from a passive vision of older people to a rights-based approach based on equality of opportunity and treatment as people grow older.

WHO pillars – health, participation and security

The WHO notion of active ageing is underpinned by three pillars – health, participation and security – that apply over the life course and will require a public health approach based on inter-sectoral action.

The health pillar is based on the prevention and reduction of the burden of excess disabilities, chronic disease and premature mortality through a wide range of policy interventions including prevention, effective treatments, age-friendly safe environments and policies to promote quality of life including social support to reduce loneliness and isolation.

Participation includes both formal and informal work as well as voluntary activities according to individual needs, preferences and capacities as well as learning opportunities throughout the life course.

The security pillar aims to ensure the protection, safety and dignity of older people by addressing the social, financial and physical security rights and needs of people as they age, particularly by reducing inequities in the lives of older women.

A multi-layered policy-oriented model

While recognising the paradigm shifting nature of the WHO definition, Walker (2009) has highlighted some drawbacks and attempted to introduce a multi-layered policy-oriented model:

Active ageing should be a comprehensive strategy to maximise participation and well-being as people age. It should operate simultaneously at the individual (lifestyle), organisational (management), and societal (policy) levels and at all stages of the life course.

This definition was adopted by the FUTURAGE Road Map and has been central to the work conducted in MOPACT. In addition there are seven principles underpinning this conceptualisation of active ageing:

A wide definition of activity that includes all meaningful pursuits.
A preventive approach that involves people across all age groups.
Active ageing should include all older people including those who are frail and disabled regardless of their chronological age.
It should involve inter-generational solidarity and fairness between generations with an emphasis on activities that span across generations.
Rights to social protection and other forms of social welfare along with obligations to take advantage of these opportunities and remain active in other ways.
Active ageing should be participative and empowering with a mixture of top-down and bottom-up initiatives that enable people to develop their own forms of activity.
It must respect national and cultural diversity across and within European nation states (Walker and Foster, 2013).

WHO guiding principles

Furthermore, the World Health Organisation’s guiding principles for active ageing were relevant and fully considered during this process:

Participatory approach that involves older people in policy-making process of initiatives and evaluation of implementation.
Empowerment at the personal and community level is at the core of community action and voluntary initiatives that promote AHA.
Focus on equity with particular attention for vulnerable or disadvantaged groups of older people who have accumulated inequalities over the life course.
Gender perspective is essential given the differences between men and women in their roles and experiences over the life course and into old age.
Inter-sectoral action based on ‘whole of society’ and government with health in all policies to influence the social determinants of health ageing with all relevant stakeholders.
Sustainability and value for money are critical for AHA with improved quality of care and proven effectiveness of interventions being important concerns (WHO, 2012a: 4-5).

These frameworks and guiding principles for active ageing informed the search and consideration of social innovations for the MOPACT project. Social innovations must contain several elements in order to be considered as worthwhile examples for the purposes of MOPACT.

The Active Ageing Index (AAI)

The Active Ageing Index provides unique multi-faceted evidence on the contribution of older people across EU countries to their social and economic lives. It covers not only employment of older people but also their unpaid familial, social, and cultural contributions, and their independent, healthy, and secure living. It also captures how the EU countries differ with respect to capacity and enabling environments for active and healthy ageing. As the ageing experiences of men and women are expected to be different, the AAI also provides a breakdown by gender.

The Active Ageing Index serves as a flexible tool to enable a range of stakeholders to develop evidence-based strategies to address the challenges of population ageing and its impact on society. It was developed in the course of the 2012 European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. It is also being used to monitor the implementation of national ageing-related policies in the context of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA).