Overview

WHO, in collaboration with Age and Ageing, the journal of the British Geriatrics Society, has released a Special Issue on Measurements of Healthy Ageing. This Special Issue brings together the work of international professionals and experts from over 40 academic institutions to identify the best available tools to measure what truly matters to older people – their intrinsic capacity and functional ability. The global demographic shift towards an ageing population – where the number of individuals aged over 60 is expected to double by 2050, reaching nearly 2.1 billion – presents unique challenges and opportunities. Although people are living longer, the average length of time someone can expect to live in good health has not improved in many countries. This means more people are spending their older years in poor health or with disabilities. The collection of articles in this issue addresses the growing need for greater knowledge and understanding about healthy ageing. The biggest challenge in measuring healthy ageing is a lack of consistency across data, stemming from the wide range of ways to collect and analyse data. In response, the Special Issue aims to help ensure measurement concepts are clearly defined and offer a route to greater harmonization of measurement approaches.