Improving understanding, measurement and monitoring of healthy ageing

With the adoption of the United Nation's (UN) Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)  by the 75th General Assembly on 14 December 2020 and by the 73rd World Health Assembly on 3 August 2020, countries have committed to 10 years of concerted and collaborative actions to improve the lives of the older people (defined as age 60 years and over), their families and the communities in which they reside.  

WHO ageing data portal stores and displays country, regional and global data on important ageing health indicators. (Access ageing country profiles). However, there is a greater need to review existing indicators and identify the measurement gaps to strengthen monitoring and evaluation activities of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing. Many indicators need to be operationalized from a programmatic perspective for the actions areas, and guidance on measures, data collection, analysis and reporting is urgently needed to support global, regional and national monitoring of the actions, programmes and policies.

Making progress on Healthy Ageing will require a far better understanding of age-related issues and trends. Three approaches will be crucial for improving measurement of ageing and health.
 
These are:

• agreeing on metrics, measures and analytical approaches;
• monitoring trajectories across the different population groups, including variation across and within countries; and
• conducting research to ageing and health to improve intrinsic capacity and functional ability across the life course in diverse contexts, involving multiple sectors (health, social, and others), and sharing evidence on what can be done to meet the distinct needs and goals of older populations

To support these approaches WHO coordinates a broad range of activities.

These include :

• development of normative tools, including standardized survey instruments and related manuals;
• supporting countries to improve their capacity to collect, analyse and use data on ageing and health; and
• supporting multi-country ageing and health surveys to improve Healthy Ageing in light of social, gender and biologic determinants, roles of health and other social systems, and broader social and economic context