Measuring ageing beyond chronological age: Insights from consumer behaviour research

Demographic change and rising life expectancy have made ageing a global priority across research and policy. Yet, how ageing should be measured remains a fundamental challenge. Ageing is not only about accumulating additional years of life, but also reflects heterogeneity in health, functioning, capabilities, and social participation across the life course. Researchers at IIASA, the Health, Ageing and Health Systems (H2A) research group in particular, have long contributed to the development of more informative measures of healthy ageing.

A recent study addresses this challenge from a consumer behaviour research perspective. Specifically, the paper examines how age is conceptualised and measured in studies of older consumers, applying established approaches from gerontology and demography.

Based on a systematic review of 211 academic papers, the study provides a comprehensive overview of chronological, biological, psychological, social, and multi-theoretical age measures. While ability-based perspectives on ageing have gained importance in recent years, chronological age remains the dominant indicator. To advance theory development and empirical research, the authors argue for a stronger interdisciplinary focus and greater use of parsimonious, performance-based, and robust ageing measures developed in gerontology and demography.

Beyond this work, H2A members are also actively involved in international initiatives to advance life-course approaches to health and ageing, including participation in the WHO Life Course Network. This collaboration recently supported the WHO Framework to implement a life course approach in practice, which synthesises current evidence and provides guidance for reorienting health systems to improve health and well-being across the life span.

Reference

Zniva, R., & Weber, D. (2025). Indeed a ‛silver bullet’ – improving the measurement of ageing in consumer behaviour using the characteristic age approach. Journal of Marketing Management, 1–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2025.2559922