Wonderful healthcare developments have taken place in the last fifty years and health has improved too, until the last few years during which both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy have declined, The call is loud for even greater investment in the NHS and there is obviously unmet need but what we are observing is a decline in health and wellbeingwhich needs a more fundamental approach which tackles the determinants of disease not just its consequences
So what are the most important determinants of healthy life expectancy? Smoking, diet and inactivity would be top of the list of most people but what are the determinants of these and other risk factors? Deprivation is a key issue but deprivation relates to anoth determinant – the level of education of individuals and populations.. So Learning is a health service at all ages not only the level of initial education but learning throughout life and it is clear that everybody including many members of the medical profession, need to Learn how to Live Better for Longer.
Most people still assume that ‘ageing’ namely the normal biological, untreatable process is the principal cause of the deterioration of health from 60 on but this is wrong
As well as the social factors already mentioned there is also the problem of isolation and prejudice of ageism, one feature of which is the belief that decline is all due to ageing. The science is now clear. Ageing is not the cause of major problems for most people until the nineties. In addition to deprivation there are two other major factors, loss of mental and physical fitness and disease, most of which is not caused by ageing which is caused, like the loss fo fitness, by the modern environment. Dementia too is only 60% due to Alzheimer’s disease the other 40% being due to these same environmental factors and to social factors including isolation, aggravated by hearing problems, and lack of challenge.
So the priority is for people learn these new facts of life and the methods discussed in this report describe how this could be done. Social prescribing is an obvious route for providing people with the knowledge about what is happening to them and what opportunities there are, both local and digital, to take action not only to help themselves but also to help others learn – non-formal education. This report should encourage U3A groups and members to see they have the opportunity and the skills to help all older people Learn to Live Longer Better not only among members but in the population as a whole. U3A is uniquely positioned to lead this learning and cultural revolution.
So what are the most important determinants of healthy life expectancy? Smoking, diet and inactivity would be top of the list of most people but what are the determinants of these and other risk factors? Deprivation is a key issue but deprivation relates to anoth determinant – the level of education of individuals and populations.. So Learning is a health service at all ages not only the level of initial education but learning throughout life and it is clear that everybody including many members of the medical profession, need to Learn how to Live Better for Longer.
Most people still assume that ‘ageing’ namely the normal biological, untreatable process is the principal cause of the deterioration of health from 60 on but this is wrong
As well as the social factors already mentioned there is also the problem of isolation and prejudice of ageism, one feature of which is the belief that decline is all due to ageing. The science is now clear. Ageing is not the cause of major problems for most people until the nineties. In addition to deprivation there are two other major factors, loss of mental and physical fitness and disease, most of which is not caused by ageing which is caused, like the loss fo fitness, by the modern environment. Dementia too is only 60% due to Alzheimer’s disease the other 40% being due to these same environmental factors and to social factors including isolation, aggravated by hearing problems, and lack of challenge.
So the priority is for people learn these new facts of life and the methods discussed in this report describe how this could be done. Social prescribing is an obvious route for providing people with the knowledge about what is happening to them and what opportunities there are, both local and digital, to take action not only to help themselves but also to help others learn – non-formal education. This report should encourage U3A groups and members to see they have the opportunity and the skills to help all older people Learn to Live Longer Better not only among members but in the population as a whole. U3A is uniquely positioned to lead this learning and cultural revolution.