The remarkable advances in life expectancy since the 19th century have resulted in unprecedented population growth and increasing proportions of older people in many countries worldwide. Consequently, the costs of care and pensions spending are expected to increase and this may impact negatively on economies and younger generations. This has prompted many nations to develop policies concerning ways to prolong quality of life and increase the prevalence of healthy, active older people, but reliable evidence is needed to inform this.
Chronological age changes at a constant rate yet within a group of people of the same age, there is considerable variation in bodily status, concerning risk of disease and death or level of functioning. The term ‘healthy ageing’ (HA) refers to the promotion and maintenance of health and functioning with age. The lifecourse approach to HA focuses on the early identification and determinants of accelerated ageing trajectories, with an aim to understand and inform steps to moderate the onset or rate of ageing.
The aim of this project is to define, develop and test a measure of HA, as currently, no common definition or standard measure of HA exists, and use it to investigate the lifecourse determinants (e.g. birthweight or height) and genetic influences on HA. The HA measure will also be compared the ‘epigenetic clock’ method proposed for determining biological age.