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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Progress towards Healthy Ageing in Europe
— to promote active healthy lifestyles in 45-68 year olds through workplace, rather than traditional health-related settings | | Author(s) | Elspeth Anne Gibson |
| Journal title | Working with Older People, vol 18, no 2, 2014 |
| Publisher | Emerald, 2014 |
| Pages | pp 51-57 |
| Source | www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/wwop.htm |
| Keywords | Middle aged ; Employees ; Preventative medicine ; Good Health ; Keeping fit ; European Union ; Qualitative Studies ; Suffolk. |
| Annotation | Progress towards Healthy Ageing in Europe has been a two-year European funded project led by Suffolk County Council Public Health and involving five European Union (EU) member nations. This paper shares the learning from the project as it relates to early preventative activity to promote healthy active ageing. The population of interest is a mid-life age group (age 45-68) accessed in the workplace. The project used qualitative research applying an online Health Manager tool and focus group discussions, along with transnational work to learn from other EU countries about approaches to promote healthy active ageing. A comprehensive account of all project findings is available from a website (www.progresshealthyageing.eu). This paper outlines the findings from the UK regional activity of the application of an online Health Manager tool to employees (ca. 1,000 participants) from Suffolk in the 45-68 year age group. The phenomenon of the "healthy worker effect" (Shah, 2009) may be a limitation, as the population of interest in this age group were mainly employed and in paid employment. The healthy worker effect implies that those who are employed are already "healthier" due to being employed. The further limitation of the timescale for the intervention and project funding as a resource limitation precludes longer term follow-up and evidence collection to find out if behaviour change in participants has been sustained over time. The findings of the EU Project have contributed towards the Europe 2020 Strategy. Locally, the findings from the project have supported Suffolk County Council's ambition to be the most active county in England. The findings have added momentum to local workplace health initiatives, by providing a focus for the needs of the older workforce. Learning from the Project has also informed development of the Suffolk Workplace Challenge. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-150619280 A |
| Classmark | SE: WK: LK2: CD: CE: WFC: 3DP: 8SU |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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