Healthy Aging Through The Social Determinants of Health
AzPHA Member M. Aaron Guest, PhD, MPH, MSW; Elaine T. Jurkowski, PhD, MSW
People are growing older and experiencing a much longer life span than that of prior generations. Many people over the age of 60 are healthier today and living in place within their home-based communities with noninstitutionalized care. In addition, only about 5% of the older adult population is living in institutional care.
Despite this reality, the focus on older adults in much of the previous research has focused on institutional care. It is only within the last decade that we have begun to see publications related to healthy aging and community-based opportunities through the lens of public health. To date, there has been precious little attention to how we discuss and frame aging through a public health lens.
To this end, the Aging and Public Health Section of the American Public Health Association has worked to provide a seminal piece of work, this book on healthy aging, to help practitioners and public health professionals better prepare for their work with the older adult populations.
Section I of this book provides an overview of how the social determinant of health care and access to health care play a role in the course of healthy aging.
Section II on neighborhood and the built environment addresses the impact that neighborhood and different types of built environments have on the health and social outcomes of older adults.
Section III addresses the critical role that social support plays within the process of healthy aging. Social support, caregiving, and the role of these supports are important factors within the healthy aging process.
Section IV addresses education, access to education, and the impact of education on health outcomes and health literacy.
Lastly, Section V deals with economic and policy issues that play a role in the healthy aging process. Factors such as pensions, economic resources, and policies that shape these outcomes are discussed in this section.
