The global population is aging with unpreceded speed, while the old (65+ years old) and oldest old (90+ years old) are now the fastest growing population segment in various regions. To address this issue, various efforts have assessed the concept of healthy, successful or active aging internationally as well as regionally.
In 2015, the World Health Organization suggested that healthy ageing should be defined as the process ‘of developing and maintaining the functional ability which promotes well-being in older adults. A context that is actually considering healthy ageing as a function of an individual’s functional ability over time and not only focusing on disease burden at a single time point. An individuals’ intrinsic capacity (like physical and mental capacities) and the related environment (such as access to medications, personal support, aging friendly cities) compose functional ability. Taking into account the aforementioned, functional ability and disease burden may be able to more broadly capture the healthy aging state.
While there is considerable interest among scientists regarding healthy aging, there is still scant information on the role of functional ability and disease burden as well as the development of temporal and regional patterns and their risk factors around the world. Recent studies have shown that functional ability, intrinsic capacity, disease burden, as well as the environment could effect on healthy aging. Given the importance of this issue, the journal Frontiers in Rehabilitation science is planning a Special Topic on “Healthy Aging: the role of disease burden and functional ability” with the aim of providing a source for accurate and up-to-date scientific information on this topic.
We invite you and your co-workers to consider submission of your original research findings or a review article on the topic. Manuscripts should focus on aging epidemiology as well as on the relation of functional ability, disease burden and the environment to the aging process across older populations around the world. We also welcome manuscripts that focus on successful and active aging and their related risk factors. Specific studies on functional ability and intrinsic capacity in relation with longevity and aging are also welcome. We encourage authors to submit work from databases representing low- and middle- income countries, where almost no data in this area exist. We expect that papers collected in this Research Topic will provide new insights on older adult’s health and quality of life and that would be helpful for funders and policy makers around the world.
The global population is aging with unpreceded speed, while the old (65+ years old) and oldest old (90+ years old) are now the fastest growing population segment in various regions. To address this issue, various efforts have assessed the concept of healthy, successful or active aging internationally as well as regionally.
In 2015, the World Health Organization suggested that healthy ageing should be defined as the process ‘of developing and maintaining the functional ability which promotes well-being in older adults. A context that is actually considering healthy ageing as a function of an individual’s functional ability over time and not only focusing on disease burden at a single time point. An individuals’ intrinsic capacity (like physical and mental capacities) and the related environment (such as access to medications, personal support, aging friendly cities) compose functional ability. Taking into account the aforementioned, functional ability and disease burden may be able to more broadly capture the healthy aging state.
While there is considerable interest among scientists regarding healthy aging, there is still scant information on the role of functional ability and disease burden as well as the development of temporal and regional patterns and their risk factors around the world. Recent studies have shown that functional ability, intrinsic capacity, disease burden, as well as the environment could effect on healthy aging. Given the importance of this issue, the journal Frontiers in Rehabilitation science is planning a Special Topic on “Healthy Aging: the role of disease burden and functional ability” with the aim of providing a source for accurate and up-to-date scientific information on this topic.
We invite you and your co-workers to consider submission of your original research findings or a review article on the topic. Manuscripts should focus on aging epidemiology as well as on the relation of functional ability, disease burden and the environment to the aging process across older populations around the world. We also welcome manuscripts that focus on successful and active aging and their related risk factors. Specific studies on functional ability and intrinsic capacity in relation with longevity and aging are also welcome. We encourage authors to submit work from databases representing low- and middle- income countries, where almost no data in this area exist. We expect that papers collected in this Research Topic will provide new insights on older adult’s health and quality of life and that would be helpful for funders and policy makers around the world.
