You can recommended the physical activities and nutritional education interventions. Another possibility is to offer educational programs that help the older adults to engage in social activities.

Hi Theodore,

I am answering a part of your question since the topic is vast and would invite discussions on several topics. The typical story revolves around pathological, pharmaceutical and non pharmaceutical measures that impact health and ageing. I am not stressing pathological here as the same is easily available in literature. People these days have started to take Multivitamins, Antioxidants etc that have proven to be effective in reducing the process of ageing e.g. Antioxidants reduce free radical mediated damage.

Non pharmaceutical measures could include Yoga and meditation that not only reduce Hypertension but can also have positive mood changes (thus reducing depression, proven at neural transmitter level now). Since the process of ageing starts quite early, so, any research that is looking at measures to slow down ageing or positive ageing must start from very beginning.

There are other social determinants as well e.g. environment, air pollution, contaminated and adulterated food items etc. 

All the best!

Manpreet   

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249911/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3193654/

Book Effect of Non Pharmacological Measures on Mental Health

the key to this question is to explore with the patient what is meaningful to them.  For some it may be as simple as being at home or others it may involve more including activity areas identified, social arenas, PCP identification or the ability to eliminate a medication that has side effects that effect life's quality for the patient.  Listening is what can be used in the clinical setting and then assisting with goals of care.  If coming to the clinic or hospital decreases life's quality maybe using telemedicine etc.  The clinical possibilities are endless once the meaning of the patient's life is identified

I would say that , as Jacqueline stated, continually engaging patients in the discussion is critical.  Effective treatment and intervention is multidimensional and includes assessment of the life of the person beyond the clinical setting.  Finding others (where needed) who can help with appropriate assessment is also critical to designing goals for senior patients.  Avoiding insulting summations is also helpful.  No longer does it work to tell patients, "You're just getting old." in response to their inquiries.  Rather, respect of patient concerns will increase the success of treatment plan implementation and goal attainment.

In clinical long term care (LTC) these days "person-centred care" is emphasized and I believe answers that focus on the individual are on the right track, however, one-person-at-a time not the only way to have a impact on aging generations.  With the boomers reaching old age, researchers now have many who want to hear what reliably knows, so "getting the word out" in the media and assuring them what is accurate and what is not is needed.  I speak as a working gerontological researcher who is at the age I should be taking remedial actions (e.g., I need to exercise more). I need to be reminded that it is never seems to be to late (based on studies of weightlifting in LTC). So I believe it is up to good communicators like Dr. Cosco to keep messages like that in the public eye. I agree with him, "investigating the ways in which these constructs can be practically applied will be become increasingly important" -- knowing what messages work, and what don't, and how to deliver them is important because you do not want to spend energy on messages and methods that do not work. I ask: would messages to my physical therapist (and PTs in training, as well as to public messages to me and my peers) work better that messages to my family physician? I spend 1 hr. with my PT each time, and after a pulled muscle see him frequently, whereas I spend 10 min. with my physician, so I'd think invest in training PTs, but do we know that? 

I also advocate for person-centred care. This means relating to the person in the moment trying to do our best to understand their needs. This means we need to be authentic and reflective, aware of our own agendas and discourses that may have influenced how we think e.g. the bio-medical model versus a more holistic bio-psycho-social model. As a gerontologist I try not to identify too much with being a physiotherapist... I try to be in the moment with the older person so I can understand what is important to them and then act accordingly involving the person and other members of the care team where necessary. This may not answer the original question very well but I have problems with labels such as "successful" or "healthy" ageing. I would rather think of it as supporting others achieve quality of life within their context, each person's context being so different to the next person's. Where we believe we can help someone by introducing an evidence-based means of improving health and quality of life, motivational interviewing seems a good way to go. Sometimes it means being an advocate when there are systemic difficulties... look at our society as well as the individual.

I'm broadly with the previous comments about 'person-centred care' and on-going dialogue but would want to emphasise this is not simply a medical issue but a 'quality of life' discussion. This might include people thinking about their death and their spiritual needs as they move towards the end of life. This of course would lead to exploring any culturally important areas of their sense of a good ‘quality of life’ which will vary across diverse communities and  be a particularly evocative area for people who may be migrants who are growing old in a country  entirely different  to the one they were born  in. I also finally would say that we need to find time to support the aspirations of people in later life. We should not assume older [people do not want to learn new skills or have novel experiences and discourage them simply on the basis that they are ‘too old’

I have come to distrust this type of analysis when it is age based. After 30 years working with fragile seniors and their families I have come to realize that "healthy aging" is just about "healthy". Statistically, one faces increased risks with age...mortality will happen. And certainly one can improve the odds for health with better diet, exercise, and habits (not smoking to limit cardiovascular and pulmonary deficits). But over the years I've worked with folks with R.A., M.S, ALS, and cancer...at all ages. Clinically, I've come to say that at every age there are things we can do to maximize both our current lives and our potential for the best possible future. If one is 35 or 75 the same message is delivered.  Yesterday I helped an elderly lady from the clinic into a cab. "Age is hell," she said as she walked slowly on her cane. "It's not age," I said to her. "I have folks with MS who would give anything to move as well as you. And compared to the kids with juvenile arthritis, you're a marathoner."

We have utilized our theories of preventive and corrective proactivity to develop interventions that train elderly persons for greater self advocacy.We feel that there is a need to move away from typical " top down" approaches that  train professionals to offer person centered care. We offer education that can empower older adults to seek health information, plan ahead and  advocate for themselves or those they care for. Such programs are being implemented with older adults who participate in senior centers in the US. I hope this alternative perspective is helpful.

Interesting question and one which would probably differ depending upon cultural context. 

This is a broad question. I think an important aspect is to start keeping healthy at a young age e.g. living healthy life style, eating healthy food, exercising etc. and not forgetting the social part of adolescent life (close family and good friends). This will keep people healthier when they get older. The other aspect is to closely provide all required social, psychological and medical support for the older population. As few colleagues mentioned, engaging the elderly is of course important. 

Hope this perspective helps you in your research,

Regards,

Muna

Positive states of aging actually begin with measuring positive state of health instead of pathology as has been the case with allopathic medicine

The types and levels of function to be measured can be envisaged using the WHO definition of health as the presence of well being and not just the absence of illness.

Thus one can take social well being, physical well being, mental well being, spiritual well being e.t.c. and determine the levels of function from taking a range of "normals." One can then determine an individual's well being, based on gender, age, geography, e.t.c.

Hope this helps.

according the Andrew Steptoe et al, there are 3 components contributing the healthy, active and successfull aging: evaluative wellbeing(or life satisfaction), hedonic wellbeing (feeling of happiness, sadness, anger,stress,and pain) and eudemonic wellbeing (sense of purpose and meaning in life). To get more detail of those topics, you can enter the lancet.com November 6,2014. They have a full report on aging

Hope this helps