Health, Lifestyle, and Gender Influences on Aging Well: An Australian Longitudinal Analysis to Guide Health Promotion

Abstract

A primary societal goal for aging is enabling older people to continue to live well as long as possible. The evidence base around aging well (“healthy,” “active,” and “successful” aging) has been constructed mainly from academic and professional conceptualizations of mortality, morbidity, functioning, and psychological well-being with some attention to lay views. Our study aims to inform action on health promotion to achieve aging well as conceptualized by qualitative research identifying what older Australians themselves value most: continuing to live as long as possible in the community with independence in daily living, and good self-rated health and psychological well-being. Multivariate survival analyses from the Melbourne longitudinal studies on healthy aging program found that important threats to aging well for the total sample over a 12-year period were chronological age, multi-morbidity, low perceived social support, low nutritional score, and being under-weight. For men, threats to aging well were low strain, perceived inadequacy of social activity, and being a current smoker. For women, urinary incontinence, low physical activity and being under-weight were threats to aging well. The findings indicate that healthy lifestyles can assist aging well, and suggest the value of taking gender into account in health promotion strategies.

Multimorbidity, Health, and Aging in Canada and Australia: A Tale of Two Countries

“…These include, for example, a truncated life span [24], limitations or loss of function [10,25], episodic pain and lower perceived health [1], as well as increased health care utilization [11], such as hospital use, doctor visits, and medications. While a majority of older individuals experience multimorbidity, especially if they live into their 80s and beyond, most learn to cope with chronic conditions and maintain independence and quality of life 4 , although the combined effects of multiple chronic conditions can be debilitating for some older adults. Chronic conditions are often episodic in severity and symptomology, with often synergetic deleterious effects on pain, function, and HRQOL [14].…”

“…Chronic conditions are often episodic in severity and symptomology, with often synergetic deleterious effects on pain, function, and HRQOL [14]. Recently, researchers have paid closer attention to the impact of multiple chronic conditions on HRQOL, such as lower life satisfaction, feelings of stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness, increased social isolation, loss of self-esteem, and alterations in social roles [1,4,6]. Thus, there are both objective and subjective dimensions of health that require examination as important health-related outcomes of experiencing multiple chronic conditions in middle and old ager age.…”

“…For instance, in Canadian and Australian population health surveys, it has been estimated that between 50 % and 65 % of persons 65 and over report concurrent multiple chronic conditions, depending on the illnesses surveyed [2,3]. While a majority of older adults rate their perceived health, well-being and daily functional ability (indicators of successful aging) as high even in the face of chronic conditions [4,5], multimorbidity remains a major contributor to disability, deaths, and health care costs [6]. Cascading effects of multiple chronic health conditions [7] and their potentially synergetic deleterious health-related and social consequences [8,9] make co-occurrence of illness a major public health issue, for instance, increasing functional disability, social isolation and health care utilization, as well as lowering psychological well-being.…”

“…This area of inquiry is particularly relevant given the age-old question of why some older adults appear to 'live well, ' adapt, or age successfully in the face of stressful illness conditions such as disability [13][14][15]. While most research has examined objective health outcomes [1,6], research findings are equivocal with respect to health-related quality of life (HRQOL), such as lower life satisfaction and increases in loneliness and social isolation with the accompanying feelings of stress, anxiety, loss of self-esteem, and alterations in social roles [4,11].…”

Diabetes and Vaginal Surgery Are Associated With Mixed Urinary Incontinence in Patients Treated in a Tertiary Unit of Rio De Janeiro Public Healthcare System

“…Therefore, efforts should be made to better understand this condition and minimize its effects on the general population through prevention and treatment measures 1 . European epidemiological studies have shown that, based on each clinical category, 50% of all women with UI are classified as having stress urinary incontinence (SUI), followed by mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) and overactive bladder (OB) 2 .…”