Leader: Fabrizio Faggiano (UPO); Other collaborator(s): Silvia Caristia (UPO); Erica Viola (UPO); Davide Servetti (UPO)
The WP will identify and analyse the main national health and social laws, strategies and plans in order to identify those related to the elderly population, in particular those focused on the promotion of healthy and active ageing. These will be then compared with the most relevant European regulations in order to identify policy gaps and contradictions. The results of these analysis will be used to develop a strategy to meet most relevant national and regional stakeholder and to share and discuss with them the gaps, to assign a priority level and to support them in filling the gaps. These actions will be done adopting a Delphi approach. The main documents collected and results of analysis, will be published in a digital system that facilitate the access by the main stakeholders.
During the first year of activity, a protocol was developed for mapping the policies advocated by international organizations to promote healthy and active ageing. A web search was conducted using keywords and the chain sampling approach. Two blind reviewers evaluated the records to find qualifying reports, from which the proposed double-blind policies were extracted. An extended multidisciplinary team compared results and settled disagreements. A double-blind data extraction of policies was performed on the included reports. Data was compared, and any differences were resolved within the larger team.
After getting an agreement on the acts to be included, we began analyzing and aggregating the data. The acts were specifically classified based on the strategy(s) to which they respond (up to a maximum of four, for a total of 14 distinct strategies). Actions were also divided into policy sectors and related sub-sectors (one sector per share, for a total of 19 out of 21 sectors). The actions were also classified according to the target population they are aimed at. The classification of activities was thoroughly addressed in the wider group.
A matrix was built using 554 actions described in 36 papers from seven international organizations. The matrix serves as an inventory for initiatives and actions supporting healthy and active aging, categorizing them by strategy and policy area. Meanwhile, the cascade tender winner has been picked, and they will be in charge of mapping national and regional actions and programs to identify the gap between what is proposed and the Italian scenario.
Disseminate and make the archive available to public and professional decision-makers in order to assist them in developing interventions and actions that are consistent with the healthy and active aging approach. The split into strategies and political sectors is useful for national and local public decision makers to navigate the archive.
Using the map of the 554 actions identified as a framework to identify the gap between international recommendations and Italian policies, the search for national and regional policies on active and healthy aging has started. The search is carring out in four pilot regions from the north to the south of the country: Piemonte, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, and Calabria. The search will be performed on the legislative, governmental, and normative actions on both national and regional levels.
We are organizing a workshop for policymakers interested in healthy and active aging to facilitate an open dialogue on this issue. The workshop will be realized in the first semester of 2025.
The workshop will be the way for the AGEIT project to contact the policy-makers in order to give them the opportunity to access to the description of the recommendations of the European Agencies to develop policies to promote healthy and active ageing.