Determinants of healthy ageing: a systematic review of contemporary literature

Abstract

Background: Healthy ageing frameworks have been highly explored. Our objective was to assess existing frameworks for healthy ageing and to identify commonly described factors that can potentially act as determinants of healthy ageing.

Methods: We carried out a systematic review by searching five electronic databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane, PsychINFO, and CINAHL) from January 2010 to November 2020 to capture contemporary evidence. Eligible studies needed to report a clear framework of healthy ageing in humans, within one or more of three domains (physical, mental/cognitive, social), in English. No restriction was placed on geographical location. Retrospective studies, studies that did not report a framework of healthy ageing, and studies with a focus on diagnostic measures were excluded.

Results: Of 3329 identified records, nine studies met our eligibility criteria and were included. Most of the studies were qualitative or cross sectional, and a majority were carried out in Asia, followed by North America, Australia, and Africa. The ten determinants identified for healthy ageing include physical activity, diet, self-awareness, outlook/attitude, life-long learning, faith, social support, financial security, community engagement, and independence.

Conclusions: We identified ten determinants of healthy ageing proposed by the contemporary evidence base. There appears to be increasing acknowledgement of the instrumental role of social and mental/cognitive well-being as determinants of healthy ageing. The extent to which each determinant contributes to healthy ageing requires further evaluation.

Keywords: Determinants; Framework; Healthy ageing.

Fig. 1

PRISMA 2009 Flow Diagram

Fig. 2

Pictorial representation of determinants of healthy ageing. 0: no shared studies, 1: one shared study, 2: two shared studies. There are ten shapes, each representing a determinant. The border of the label of each shape is colour-coded according to the domain they correspond to. The numbers within each shape overlap represents how many studies included that combination of determinants. Venn diagram created using Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Genomics (http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/cgi-bin/liste/Venn/calculate_venn.htpl)