A Life Course Approach to Healthy Ageing
Diana Kuh, Rachel Cooper, Rebecca Hardy, Marcus Richards, and Yoav Ben-Shlomo
Abstract
This book offers an interdisciplinary and life course approach to the study of healthy ageing, harnessing the power of cohort studies that follow people through their lives. Healthy ageing is the maintenance of optimal function for as long as possible at the individual, body system, and cellular levels, as people grow older. It is also the maintenance of wellbeing, including personal fulfilment, positive emotions, and relationships with others. The editors have brought together expert investigators of maturing birth cohort and ageing studies, cross-cutting methodologists, and specialists in ag ... More
This book offers an interdisciplinary and life course approach to the study of healthy ageing, harnessing the power of cohort studies that follow people through their lives. Healthy ageing is the maintenance of optimal function for as long as possible at the individual, body system, and cellular levels, as people grow older. It is also the maintenance of wellbeing, including personal fulfilment, positive emotions, and relationships with others. The editors have brought together expert investigators of maturing birth cohort and ageing studies, cross-cutting methodologists, and specialists in ageing research and knowledge translation. Contributors discuss how these aspects of healthy ageing are conceptualized, defined, and measured; how they relate to each other, change across life, and are influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors operating from early life onwards. They identify research gaps, and suggest how evidence from observational studies can be strengthened through improved study design and longitudinal analysis, thereby increasing the research contribution to practice and policy change. Research findings offer guidance about where and when to intervene to optimize function and wellbeing in older people. They point to a broad range of factors, such as improvements in socioeconomic circumstances, health behaviours (particularly physical activity), and the maintenance of normal body weight throughout childhood and adult life. The values of interventions in early life and adolescence are emphasized, as well as during later biological and social transitions. Increasing the level of health and activity in older people will relieve the societal and individual costs of an ageing population.
Keywords:
healthy ageing,
life course,
cohort studies,
longitudinal analysis,
capability,
wellbeing,
older people
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199656516 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199656516.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Diana Kuh, editor
University College London, UK
Rachel Cooper, editor
University College London, UK
Rebecca Hardy, editor
University College London, UK
Marcus Richards, editor
University College London, UK
Yoav Ben-Shlomo, author
from the School of Social and Community Medicine, University Bristol, UK
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