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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jose Lara-Gallegos, Professor John Mathers
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Purpose of reviewThere is great interest in developing tools to measure healthy ageing and to identify early stages of health impairment, which may guide the implementation of interventions to prevent or delay the development of disease, disability, and mortality. Here, we review the most recent developments directed to operationalize, and test, definitions of healthy ageing.Recent findingsThere is lack of consensus about how to define healthy ageing and, unsurprisingly, diversity in the instruments for its measurement. However, progress is being made in describing and in devising tools to capture the healthy ageing phenotype. Attempts to measure healthy ageing have relied primarily on cross-sectional data collected in older people. More recent studies have assessed the healthy ageing phenotype using markers of multiple functional domains and have used longitudinal data to model the dynamics and trajectories of healthy ageing.SummaryGiven the complexity of the ageing process, no single measure is able to predict the ageing trajectory. Current attempts to operationalize the healthy ageing phenotype have relied on markers and data from earlier cohort studies and are limited by the tools used to collect data in those studies. Such data are often unsuitable to detect early subtle declines in function and/or are inappropriate for use in younger old adults. Future studies employing more objective and novel markers of healthy ageing are likely to offer opportunities to define and operationalize the healthy ageing phenotype.
Author(s): Mount S, Lara J, Schols AMWJ, Mathers JC
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care
Year: 2016
Volume: 19
Issue: 6
Pages: 418-426
Print publication date: 01/11/2016
Acceptance date: 01/01/1900
ISSN (print): 1363-1950
ISSN (electronic): 1473-6519
Publisher: LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MCO.0000000000000318
DOI: 10.1097/MCO.0000000000000318
