The WHO has published the latest updated data regarding the relationship between aging and health.
Evidence suggests that the proportion of life in good health has remained broadly constant, implying that the additional years are in poor health. If people can experience these extra years of life in good health and if they live in a supportive environment, their ability to do the things they value will be a little different from that of a younger person. If these added years are dominated by declines in physical and mental capacity, the implications for older people and society are more negative.
Although some of the variations in older people’s health are genetic, most are due to people’s physical and social environments – including their homes, neighbourhoods, and communities, as well as their personal characteristics – such as their sex, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. The environments that people live in as children – or even as developing fetuses – combined with their personal characteristics, have long-term effects on how they age.
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