Staying healthy and feeling your best is important at any age, and especially as we get older. Promoting healthy ageing is about maximising everyone’s ability to continue to do the things that matter to us as we get older. Many of us fear that ageing means an inevitable decline in our quality of life. But it does not have to be that way.
People around the world are living longer. By 2050 nearly one in five people in developing countries will be over the age of 60. Longer life expectancy is a cause for celebration, but this new reality also brings new challenges.
Healthy ageing is influenced by our physical and mental abilities. Such as our ability to walk, think, see, hear and remember. As we age, these can be affected by disease, injury or general age-related changes.
Our environment and the society in which we live also affects healthy ageing: The facilities and structures built around us, the people and relationships in our lives, the attitudes and values we and others around us hold, the opportunities available to us, and the systems and services that are there to support us.
