EU sets out ten-year agenda for ageing research

The FUTURAGE Road Map, setting out the European research agenda for ageing over the next 10 years was launched today (18 October) at a meeting of the European Parliament.

The document is the result of the FUTURAGE project, led by Alan Walker, professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology at Sheffield University in the UK, together with 24 partners, from European countries, and involving eight stages of consultation and over 700 individual contributors and organisations, representing many thousands of people.

Europe is the oldest region in the world, and the upward trajectory of European ageing has been linear for more than 150 years. The share of the population aged 65 and over will rise from 17 per cent in 2010 to 30 per cent in 2060, with those aged 80 and over being the fastest growing age group, increasing from 5 per cent to 12 per cent over the same period.

The current average of healthy life years, that is, years of life in full health without disability, at 65 in the EU is eight years. However, this varies among member states from three years in Estonia to 13 years for women and 14 years for men in Denmark. This gap in healthy life years between European countries exceeds the gap in life expectancy. Both gaps are driven mainly by the low levels of life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in central and eastern European countries.

The Road Map aims to tackle the health inequalities across Europe and will aid the EU's target of increasing healthy active life by two years by the year 2020.

Despite Europe's ageing population,  Walker, says there continues to be a structural lag between this socio-demographic forward leap, and the attitudes of society and institutions, for example in the labour market and media. “Hence the need for a new vision,” Walker said.

"The reality of the plasticity and diversity of old age must replace the outdated model of inevitable decline and disability. Later life is but one part of a life course which is characterised by lifelong development. The concept that best captures this life course perspective is 'active ageing', an inclusive paradigm which does not exclude inactive or frail older persons."

The impact of the Road Map will be felt across Europe, from research to end users of services over the next ten years. In addition to its detailed research priorities, four key recommendations of the Road Map are:

• Engaging end users of research, especially older people
• Better coordination of existing and future European ageing research
• Capacity building for doctoral, postdoctoral and mid-research career training and structure. Providing infrastructure, support and training to those countries with relatively low ageing research capacity
• Knowledge transfer/knowledge exchange to exploit the results of the research it produces

The Road Map also identifies the key research questions that must be addressed in the near future in order to effectively manage the challenges of an ageing population. Some of these include:

• What role does age based discrimination play in exclusion of older people from service use and consumer markets?
• What are the dementia fears in European societies, what differences may exist between countries and how are such fears affecting ageing people in their everyday lives?
• What are the prevailing norms within the health and care sectors that potentially contribute to negative attitudes towards older people and inequalities? How do these attitudes deter effective health care interventions?
• What is the economic and social impact of age discrimination in the labour market?
• Can we identify a practically useful set of biomarkers of ageing capable of predicting future health and longevity in individual humans?

FUTUREAGE is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and is one of the EU's flagship policies for ageing. Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science said it is, “The most extensive consultation ever conducted in this field and it is mobilising stakeholders, including medical practitioners, policy makers, industry and representatives of older people to work out the terms of this Road Map."

Walker said the project has involved most of Europe's leading scientists in the ageing field and all other major stakeholders. “The Road Map is built on the assumptions of multi-disciplinarity, a life course approach to ageing and a commitment to the translation of scientific research into policy and practical responses to ageing. It provides the basis for Europe to adjust successfully to its unprecedented ageing and for a brighter future of Europeans as they age.”

FUTUREAGE  Road Map: http://www.futurage.group.shef.ac.uk/road-map