Leader: Aleksandra Torbica (Bocconi)
To design better policies and services for the elderly it is necessary to have a thorough understanding and mapping of the complexity of their health and social needs. In Italy a disparate set of public institutions contribute to respond to the health and social needs of the elderly. The ill-defined boundaries between these services make often cumbersome for the elderly and their families to navigate such system of services with potential negative repercussion on their overall health status, well-being and active ageing, in addition to consequences on the consumption (often inappropriate) of healthcare services. The WP aims to empirically investigate the needs of the elderly population to define different segments of the aging population based on their need profile. This finding is of paramount importance to inform policies to match the appropriate services and guarantee an integrated response. Furthermore, the WP aims to investigate the impact of community care (both its social and healthcare component) provided to elderly on the consumption of hospital services as well as its effect on health outcomes and wellbeing.
The contents of this dataset are derived from a systematic review of quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies on the operationalisation of healthy ageing (Task 6.1), with the vast majority originating from quantitative longitudinal population-based studies focused on individuals aged 50 and over.
For the full dataset, please consult “Conceptualisation and measurement of healthy ageing: Insights from a systematic literature review” (available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117933).