February 2023: Kick-off webinar WHO Collaborating Center Life Course and Health
To launch the WHO Collaborating Centre Life Course and Health, we will organise a kick-off webinar in early 2023. More information will follow soon on this website.
7 November 2022: WHO designation Collaborating Centre Life Course and Health
The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated RIVM as WHO Collaborating Centre on Life Course and Health. Read the news.
13 June 2022: Velux Stiftung Board Meeting
The Board of the Velux Stiftung paid a visit to the WHO. During this meeting, Prof. Monique Verschuren of the WHO CC Life Course and Health gave a short presentation on healthy ageing trajectories. She presented a conceptual model on how functioning develops over the life course; reaching the highest level already in the first decades of life, followed by a gradual decline that can be slow in one person and fast in another. For a long time during life, the decline has no serious consequences because there is reserve capacity, but the faster the decline, the earlier in life people will experience limitations in functioning. As an example, it was shown that e.g. abdominal obesity is related to a lower level of cognitive functioning, and also to a more rapid decline in cognitive functioning. This implies that there are modifiable factors, such as BMI, that can be tackled to slow down cognitive decline and contribute to the maintenance of cognitive capacities.
9 and 10 June 2022: Beyond the Decade of Healthy ageing. Extending benefits across the life course
WHO’s new area of work, extending the focus on the life course before age 60, was launched with this kick-off meeting on 9 - 10 June, 2022. It was led by dr. Ritu Sadana from the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Ageing (MCA). This department focuses on healthy trajectories, concentrating on connecting healthy development with healthy ageing across the life course. Over the two days, eight life course centres from various WHO regions presented their main areas of work and their innovations in life course research.
Prof. Monique Verschuren of the WHO CC Life Course and Health gave a presentation in Session 1: Life course centres perspective. She presented an overview of their main resource for research on ageing, which is the Doetinchem Cohort Study that started in 1987 with follow-up examinations every 5 years. They are now in their seventh round, and participants are aged 50 to 90. Prof. Verschuren highlighted that not everyone reaches the same level of optimal functioning early in life and the range of functioning becomes more heterogenic as people grow older. The main focus of the Doetinchem Cohort Study is to explain this heterogeneity and to see what the determinants are that will keep people on the healthy trajectory and to be able to recognise early on in life who is on the ‘unhealthy’ path.
30 March 2022: Annual Meeting WHO Consortium on Metrics and Evidence for Healthy Ageing
The WHO Consortium on Metrics and Evidence for Healthy Ageing (CMEHA) held its fifth annual meeting on 30 March 2022. This meeting focused on providing updates on three related products that are derivatives of the Decade of Healthy Ageing: the Report Decade of healthy ageing: baseline report was launched in December 2020, from which the Consortium identified and agreed on three related products that further enable monitoring of the UN (United Nations
) Decade and its impact: the SDG (Sustainable Development Goal
) indicator report: making older people more visible, WHO Toolkit for national monitoring of healthy ageing, and WHO Health inequality and healthy ageing report. 2) updates on other research activities by our members, and 3) introducing a new area of work to be led by the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Ageing (MCA), within its cross-cutting work on healthy trajectories, concentrating on connecting healthy development with healthy ageing across the life course.
Monique Verschuren of the WHO CC Life Course and Health chaired the session on ‘Healthy ageing starts before age 60’.
January 2022: WHO summary of Baseline report UN Decade of Healthy Ageing
WHO has published an executive summary of the Decade of healthy ageing: baseline report. It is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.
March 2021: Discussion on developing a National Tool Kit to Monitor Healthy Ageing
A toolkit for National Measurement and Monitoring of Healthy Ageing is intended to help countries produce accurate and reliable data on healthy ageing and related indicators.
December 2020: WHO Consortium on Metrics and Evidence for Healthy Ageing (CMEHA) meeting
WHO launched an International Consortium on Metrics and Evidence for Healthy Ageing in 2017 with 50+ experts from all WHO regions, including policy-makers, civil society organisers and researchers, to channel global expertise and contribute to work identified as priorities. A key priority included developing the methods and contents for the Global Baseline Report for the Decade of Healthy Ageing.
December 2020: Publication of the Decade of Healthy Ageing: Baseline report
WHO has published the Decade of Healthy Ageing Baseline report.
December 2020: Launch of the Decade of Healthy Ageing
The United Nations declared 2021 - 2030 Decade of Healthy Ageing. It aligns with the last ten years of the Sustainable Development Goals. More information on the Decade of Healthy Ageing on the WHO website.