Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wpx84 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-06T22:36:12.067Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

32 - The Active Aging Index

Measuring Successful Aging at Population Level

from Part III - Socio-Demographic Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Rocío Fernández-Ballesteros
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Athanase Benetos
Affiliation:
Université de Lorraine and Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) Nancy
Jean-Marie Robine
Affiliation:
INSERM
Get access

Summary

The Active Ageing Index (AAI) has been developed as a tool to monitor the contribution and untapped potential of older people with a purpose to provide evidence for public policy actions. This chapter discusses the conceptual basis of the AAI (first outlined in Zaidi et al. 2013). In the 1990s, the concept of active ageing started to develop, underlining the active role of elderly in society. However, differently from the concept of successful aging, it emphasised also the need to account for optimization of opportunity structures and enabling environment. The active ageing strategy is predicated on the insight that, in tackling issues associated with population aging, successful measures are those which empower older people in increasing their participation not just in the labour market but also in social and family engagement, and recognise that independent, self-reliant, secure and healthy living is an important prerequisite for active aging. This chapter’s contribution lies in highlighting the operationalisation of these concepts using the micro-data of different EU wide surveys, and analysing the trends across Europe. Furthermore, gender and educational inequalities are also outlined and discussed to reveal the differences in active ageing experiences across subgroups.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Council of the European Union. (2012) Council Declaration on the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations: The Way Forward, 17468/12, SOC 992, SAN 322. http://europa.eu/ey2012/BlobServlet?docId=9231&langId=en.Google Scholar
Hofäcker, D., Naumann, E. (2015). The emerging trend of work beyond retirement age in Germany. Zeitschrift für Gerontologie and Geriatrie, 48(5), 17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindemann, K., Unt, M. (2016). Trapped in “involuntary” work in the late career? Retirement expectations versus “desire to retire” in Estonia. Studies of Transition States and Societies, 8(2), 6077.Google Scholar
Riley, M. W., Riley, J. W., Jr. (1994). Structural lag: Past and future. In Riley, M. W., Kahn, R. L., & Foner, A. (Eds.), Age and structural lag: Society's failure to provide meaningful opportunities in work, family and leisure (pp. 1536). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rowe, J. W., Kahn, R. L. (1987). Human aging: usual and successful. Science, 237(4811), 143–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rowe, J. W., Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 37(4), 433–40. DOI: 10.1093/geront/37.4.433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rowe, J. W., Kahn, R. L. (2015). Editorial: successful aging 2.0: conceptual expansions for the twenty-first century. The Gerontologist, 55, 14.Google Scholar
Walker, A. (2002). A strategy for active ageing. International Social Security Review, 55(1), 121–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A. (2009). The emergence of active ageing in Europe. Journal of Ageing and Social Policy, 21(1), 7593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, A., Zaidi, A. (2016). New evidence on active ageing in Europe. Intereconomics, May, 51(3), 139–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO). (2002). Active aging. Geneva: A Policy Framework. World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Zaidi, A., Stanton, D. (2015). Active ageing index 2014: analytical report, report produced at the Centre for Research on ageing, University of Southampton, under contract with UNECE (Geneva), co-funded by European Commission, Brussels. www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/sharepoint/groupsite/Administration/SitePublisher-document-store/Documents/aai_report.pdf.Google Scholar
Zaidi, A., Gasior, K., Hofmarcher, M. M., et al. (2013) Active Ageing Index 2012. Concept, Methodology, and Final Results, Research Memorandum, Methodology Report, European Centre Vienna. www.euro.centre.org/data/aai/1253897823_70974.pdfGoogle Scholar
Zaidi, A., Gasior, K., Zólyomi, E., et al. (2017). Measuring active and healthy ageing in Europe. Journal of European Social Policy. 27(2), 138–57. DOI: 10.1177/0958928716676550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×