What makes people live long and keep well? Advancing the science of 'healthy aging' through examining the lay perspectives of older adults in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Canada's population is aging. Demographic forecasts indicate that Canada's population structure will change dramatically over the next two decades, such that 25% of the population will be over 65 by 2036, nearly double what it was in 2009. The implications of a rapidly aging population are among Canada's most pressing health and social policy issues. Optimizing 'healthy aging' is now a major research and policy goal in Canada. However, existing methods to measure 'healthy aging' often do not account for what older adults self-report as being important for living long and keeping well, potentially leading to misrepresentations about what the older Canadian population actually values for 'healthy aging'. This project will take advantage of data from interviews with over 50,000 Canadian men and women aged 45 to 85 years in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. We will use a novel text-mining approach to synthesize and quantify themes in what the study participants reported when asked, 'What helps people to live long and keep well?' We will examine the common themes across socio-demographic factors, including sex/gender, socioeconomic status, language, race/ethnicity including First Nations status, and province of residence. This analysis will identify, for the first time, what older Canadians across diverse social identities value for healthy aging. Then, we will examine the themes according to a range of health measures, such as chronic disease diagnoses, mobility impairments, and self-reported health. This analysis will identify what older Canadians with a range of health conditions value for healthy aging. Overall, this project will advance scientific thought by accounting for the perspectives and voices of over 50,000 older Canadians to generate new evidence on the landscape of 'healthy aging' across Canada. Ultimately, it may help inform the development of health policy and services to better suit the needs of older Canadians nationwide.