Category: Ageing

Are generations ageing less healthily over time? Multimorbidity trends in Catalonia, Spain

Iñaki Permanyer, Jordi Gumà-Lao, Sergi Trias-Llimós and Aïda Solé-Auró

Multimorbidity – where someone has two or more chronic health conditions at the same time – is a growing challenge facing health care systems, particularly in countries with low mortality rates. Although much is known about multimorbidity, important questions remain unanswered. Is it occurring more often just because people are living longer? What are the patterns of disease onset across different generations? Are some generations getting multiple chronic diseases more rapidly than others?

In an increasingly long-lived population, it’s essential for anticipating future pressures on health systems to assess whether improvements in survival prospects are accompanied by declines in illness, or whether these gains in longevity are coming at the cost of more disease and infirmity and greater care needs.

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Increased dementia risk for those who are overweight or obese

Yuxian Ma, Olesya Ajnakina, Andrew Steptoe and Dorina Cadar

Dementia is a major health challenge that could steal away the opportunity for successful ageing of the population. A priority is to identify lifestyle factors that may reduce the risk of dementia, or even prevent it. The modifiable risk factors for vascular diseases — such as smoking, excessive alcohol intake, lack of physical activity, low intake of antioxidants and high intake of saturated fats — are receiving greater attention in this area because of their association with cognitive impairment and dementia in older people.

Obesity, which is linked to lifestyle behaviours, is an important modifiable risk factor. In our recent study carried out at the UCL Department of Behavioural Science and Health, we found that being overweight or obese was associated with a greater risk of developing dementia.

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