Demographic scenarios and healthy ageing policies

© ATHLOS project

AGE Platform Europe and ATHLOS are hosting a meeting on demographic scenarios and healthy ageing policies at the European Parliament. The event considers patterns of healthy ageing trajectories, their determinants and how they can be used in public health interventions, providing an overview of the social determinants influencing health inequalities and of the policies that could more positively sustain healthy ageing. It also gathers researchers and policy makers around the most recent research findings in the field of healthy ageing and ensure they have all the right cards in hand to make the necessary change towards healthy ageing for all.

The event concludes the final General Assembly of the ATHLOS project which comes to an end in April 2020. IIASA is represented by Sergei Scherbov, Warren Sanderson and Guillaume Marois. Scherbov and Sanderson are one part of the IIASA partners in this project. Their research on new definitions of ageing based on many characteristics rather than just the classical chronological definition of age that was developed in recent years was used for calculating projections in each specific population and guide policy recommendations. The second contribution by IIASA under the leadership of Marois, was the development of micro-simulations to translate the ATHLOS findings into evidence-informed policy recommendations.

At this event, Scherbov and Sanderson will discuss the characteristics-based approach to define "old age". They will also launch new the Aging Demographic Data Sheet 2020 that presents the new measures of aging comprehensively for all countries in the world and world regions. Marois will present micro-simulation for healthy ageing trajectories.

Background

The Ageing Trajectories of Health: Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies (ATHLOS) project aims to achieve a better understanding of ageing by identifying patterns of healthy ageing pathways or trajectories and their determinants, the critical points in time when changes in trajectories are produced, and to propose timely clinical and public health interventions. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 funding scheme, this five-year project coordinated by Dr Josep Maria Haro at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu (PSSJD)consists of 14 partners from 11 European countries and involves experts from the areas of demography, sociology, clinical medicine, epidemiology and public health, health statistics, economics, data management, and policy.