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Sign in or register for an accountThe Age Well section of Salford’s Core JSSNA considers topics on health, wellbeing and other themes particularly relevant to older people. Each theme has several topics each with a summary of related information developed to provide understanding and support decision making to ensure older people can lead healthy, fulfilling, and independent lives.
Salford has more older people than ever before. Since 2010 the population aged 65 years or older has increased by around 3,300 people, reaching 36,500 people by 2023. The population increase is largely attributed to the significant number of people born during the post-war baby boom now reaching this stage of life. Those born between 1946 and 1950 were aged in their early 60s in 2010, reaching their mid-70s by 2023.
Although there are still more females (19,500) than males (17,000) aged 65 and over, the gap is closing. Since 2010, four out of every five individuals added to this age group have been male. Additionally, there are now fewer females aged over 80 than there were in 2010.
Life expectancy at the age of 65 has stalled for Salford residents over the last decade. At age 65, men in Salford can expect an additional 17 years of life, while for women it is 19 more years. However, both genders are likely to spend nearly half of these remaining years in unfavourable health.
Developing wide-ranging strategies to address the challenges of this growing population, whilst continuing to acknowledge and celebrate the role older people play in Salford, has never been more important. This will require a comprehensive, joined-up approach including partner organisations collaborating with residents. This Core JSSNA aims to provide accessible information to enable older adults to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.
This section is divided into the following parts:
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Active Ageing as “… the process of optimising opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age”. The chances of delaying disease and disability are substantially increased by straightforward measures individuals can take to prevent or significantly delay disease and maintain physical, mental and social activity.
Older adults can have mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, although these often manifest differently in older age. Renewed focus on mental health improvement interventions and services for older adults is key to improving overall quality of life in people’s later years.
The term ‘frailty’ is used to identify the group of older people who have the highest risk of adverse outcomes such as disability, falls, hospital admission, and the need for long-term care. Early identification of frailty can slow its progression and delay loss of independence.
This section looks at aspects related to the end of life. This includes causes of death as well as the circumstances around how people die. A good death means different things to different people with choice, dignity and the avoidance of suffering commonly given as important aspects.
The wider determinants of health are a diverse range of social, economic and environmental factors which impact on people's health. The variation in these factors can drive health inequalities.
Preventing and reducing the transmission of infectious diseases is essential to ensuring people stay healthy. Changes in our immune system mean that we get more serious infections as we age. It’s also harder to recover from infections, meaning older people experience worse illness for longer.