EU policy on healthy ageing

Abstract

Population ageing has been affecting all countries across the European Union (EU). To address the challenges resulting from this process, a healthy ageing strategy has been proposed. Healthy ageing aims at keeping older people in good health and independent as long as possible, and thus, im-proves their wellbeing. The aim of this paper is to present the EU healthy ageing policy, based on a review of EU documents related to this concept. A method of narrative literature review using a snowball approach has been applied. The results of the review show that healthy ageing is a broad concept which covers various issues, such as promoting health enhancing behaviour, disease prevention, changing the social perception of older people and providing conditions for the independent living of older people. Healthy ageing has often been dominated by active ageing strategies which are focused on increasing older people’s labour market participation and social involvement. The EU actions in the area of healthy ageing include: increasing awareness and encouraging relevant stakeholders to undertake actions to address the needs of older people (e.g. the 2012 European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations), providing funds (e.g. Health Programmes) and providing platforms for cooperation and exchange of good practices (e.g. the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing).