The course of a person’s whole life determines healthy aging outcomes, not only the things that happen in older age.
Makes perfect sense, but now the concept is supported by a ream of data which was part of a summer newsletter from RTOERO (formerly the Retired Teachers of Ontario). The group held a Future of Aging Summit in Toronto last month, where the Head of Aging and Health from the World Health Organization (WHO) was a keynote speaker.
Phew, all of those fancy terms make it sound like something monumental was about to be discovered. Quite the opposite, in my view – their findings make perfect sense. The WHO defines healthy aging as the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables well-being in older age. Functional ability includes such things as meeting our basic needs, maintaining mobility, forming relationships and contributing to society (whether or not we are living with a disability or disease). Makes sense that a state of wellness would be derived from ensuring those elements are always present in our lives, as best we can.
So the disparities in health and quality of life in older age, in theory, would have likely been disparities all through that person’s life. The WHO conducted research in 42 countries involving 150,000 older people, which is providing a baseline for healthy aging worldwide for the first time. The report addresses a misconception that all decline is a natural part of aging, when there is actually a range of how people age. It is influenced by many things, a number of which are factors from much earlier in life. Obviously nutrition and access to health care are vital, but so is education. The report indicates that the rate of decline, which has a starting point around age 60, varies by the individual’s highest educational attainment. Education impacts health all through a person’s life!
Presumably a higher education level equates to a higher salary, which impacts all the other basic needs. That’s something we’ve known, but now there’s clear data from around the world that shows the basic right to education is the groundwork for meeting all other health benefits and contributing to healthy aging. That’s my conclusion, anyway. That seems like a factor we should be able to do something about for people everywhere. So as another school year gets underway, dig right in and safeguard the trajectory of your entire life!