Abstract
The ageing of populations leads to an increased attention to health promotion among the elderly. The potential of health promotion to delay health deterioration and enable senior citizens to live relatively healthy and independent lives, serves as a base for the EU healthy ageing strategy and consequent European countries’ activities in health promotion and disease prevention.
We present the results of an international research project Pro-Health 65+ (2014–2017), which aimed at identifying effective methods of health promotion and disease prevention for older people, and gathering knowledge on funding, organization and good practices in this area in selected European counties.
Various research methods were applied to meet the objectives. To identify the most effective health promotion interventions, systematic literature reviews were performed. The country analysis relied on a review of available literature and primary data collected among national experts. Three groups of European countries, which represent different levels of economic development and population health status, were included: 1) Germany, Netherlands; 2) Italy, Portugal, Greece; 3) Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Lithuania.
The results indicate that population ageing spurs European countries’ efforts to activate older people and to maintain their health. In wealthy countries, community-oriented initiatives focused on physical activity and social involvement prove to work well. In less affluent countries, the attention is on health risks, such as smoking and excessive drinking. Nevertheless, health promotion for older people does not constitute a priority in the countries’ health policies and the activities are frequently initiated by NGOs and via social networking.