Health and well-being

Overview

In most EU countries life expectancy has been increasing in the past decades. These gains in life expectancy stem from two factors: first, better social conditions during the life course of subsequent cohorts of older people, and second, continued advancement in medical care and technology.

Both factors enable longer lives, with the first factor affecting longevity in both healthy and diseased older people, and the second factor in particular allowing longer lives in older people with diseases. The challenge, then, is not only to delay the onset of disease, but also to foster socially productive and satisfying lives for older people in poor health. Social engagement, in turn, has been shown to improve well-being and delay disability.

The aim of this ‘Health and well-being’ research field is to provide insights, and propose innovations, in factors driving both healthy life expectancy and social engagement of older people. This corresponds to recommendations from interest groups such as EuroHealthNet to improve ways in which older people can contribute to society.

Health and well-being has a particular focus on mechanisms at the micro, meso and macro level that are likely to foster socially productive and satisfying lives in older people in poor health. These mechanisms will be examined for specific population groups according to age, socio-economic status, marital status, and gender.

Findings for this research field

The Innovations section, contains details of social innovations related to this research field. We collected the information as part of an overarching task exploring the potential for social innovation to support active and healthy ageing undertaken as part of the ‘Active and healthy ageing as an asset’ research field.