Grow old, grow healthy: a paradox or a parody? From Homo Sapiens to Homo Salus & the proxy cause (Covid-19) of the last human shakeup!
Prof Luis Saboga Nunes, Section President, Health Promotion, European Public Health Association
Luis Saboga Nunes (Lic Soc, MPH, PhD, EuHP), a health sociologist, is associated professor at the Institute of Sociology, University of Education Freiburg — Germany. A certified European Health Promotion Practitioner (EuHP) (IUHPE) he is president of the Health Promotion Section at the European Public Health Association (EUPHA). His research interest has focused on theoretical and evidence-based good practice in public health on health literacy, extensively discussed in the course “Health Paradigms, Salutogenesis and Public Health”. This has been the natural context for establishment of the salutogenesis paradigm within specific public health interventions focused on health promotion. (www.saboga.net)
Prof Nunes would like to invite you to complete this survey about Health Promotion in times of COVID-19. This data is meant to serve as a stimulus to the health promotion community by providing various perspectives, reflections and insights as we deal with this pandemic. We invite you to share best practices and examples on how health promotion in your local, national and regional contexts is responding to the challenges societies and people currently face.
Please also feel free to download A Health Promotion Focus on COVID-19: Keep the Trojan horse out of our health systems. Promote health for ALL in times of crisis and beyond!
This presentation was made for European Public Health Week by The University of Manchester’s Master of Public Health programme in partnership with the Urban Public Health section of the European Public Health Association.
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European Public Health Week
This presentation took place on Friday 15th May 2020, and the theme for the day was “Grow old, grow healthy”.
Our societies are ageing, with an increasing portion of the population being aged 65 and older. People are living longer, though not always in good health. Healthy ageing is about age-friendly environments and integrated delivery of long-term care. It’s also about identifying older people as active contributors to society rather than patients. How do you promote healthy ageing?
Key messages
1. ‘Older people are at highest risk from COVID-19, but all must act to prevent community spread.’ — Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe
2. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when older people are encouraged to stay at home, regular, moderate physical activity can help to maintain muscle strength and cognitive function, reduce anxiety and depression, and prevent disease.
3. ‘I am reminding governments and authorities that all communities must be supported to deliver interventions to ensure older people have what they need. All older people should be treated with respect and dignity during these times. Remember, we leave no one behind.’ — Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe
4. Healthy ageing is an important prerequisite for employment, volunteering, knowledge sharing and economic spending, through which older people are an asset to society.
5. Actions to combat loneliness, social isolation and social exclusion in older people include fostering intergenerational relations, positive media reporting about this age group, access to social services by phone and training in the use of technology.
6. Older people are experts on their needs and what is important to them. To provide person- centred integrated care, older people must actively be involved in the decision making about their health and social services.
7. Nurses and support workers are key health professionals who support and care for older people. It is vital that these workers are protected from COVID-19 through adequate training, protective equipment and up to date information on how to recognise and respond to the symptoms of COVID-19.
Other facts and figures
· Many informal care workers provide care for older people and are often left unprotected. It is important that we make personal protective equipment available for these workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
· Advanced age should not by itself be a criterion for excluding patients from specialized hospital units.
· During the coronavirus outbreak, older people might experience an understandable slowing down in the discharge from acute care to rehabilitation/post-acute care units. This generates prolonged hospital stays with increased risk of iatrogenic consequences. We should make all the necessary efforts for the patients discharged from acute care units and probably use more home care facilities for rehabilitation purposes.
· Digital devices can facilitate social care and support to older and disabled people, helping health workers and social workers to address priority conditions including mobility limitations, vision and hearing loss, depressive symptoms, and rehabilitation of older survivors of COVID-19.
· If older people reach a point where they can no longer care for themselves and access to rehabilitation without support and assistance, access to good-quality long-term care is essential for such people to maintain their functional ability, enjoy basic human rights and live with dignity.
· Health-promotion and disease-prevention measures to tackle the common risk factors for non-communicable diseases can contribute greatly to healthy ageing. For example, the European Region has the highest alcohol consumption in the world. The average in the European Union, almost 3 drinks per person per day, is more than double the world average. Tobacco consumption is also relatively high in many European countries.
· Loneliness, social isolation and social exclusion are risk factors of ill health among older people, in particular in the absence of support from family networks.
· Lack of assistive products and rehabilitation services can mean older people are isolated and excluded from work, family and community life with increased expenses leading to poverty.
· There are currently 2.5 times more women than men among the people aged 85 years and over in the WHO European Region.
· The prevention of communicable diseases and health education and literacy are important tools to empower older people.
· By 2050, 80% of older people will be living in low- and middle- income countries.
· Urban areas with public space, walking circuits, and pedestrian paths can contribute to improved well-being, especially in older people.
Further Resources
Healthy Ageing resources by the WHO Regional Office for Europe: http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Life-stages/healthy-ageing
Supporting older people during the COVID-19 pandemic is everyone’s business (Press briefing with Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe): http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/news/news/2020/4/supporting-older-people-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-is- everyones-business
European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing by the European Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/ageing/home_en
Statement from the European Geriatric Medicine Society on the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.eugms.org/news/read/article/489.html
Global strategy and action plan on ageing and health: https://www.who.int/ageing/global-strategy/en/
World report on ageing and health: https://www.who.int/ageing/events/world-report-2015- launch/en/
