Healthy ageing

Health Ageing

Healthy ageing is about creating the environments and opportunities that enable people to be and do what they value throughout their lives. Everybody can experience Healthy Ageing. Being free of disease or infirmity is not a requirement for Healthy Ageing as many older adults have one or more health conditions that, when well controlled, have little influence on their wellbeing. (World Health Organization)

Benefits of healthy ageing

Helping people to stay active and engaged with their communities as they move into older age includes supporting their physical and mental health and creating an environment, which enables people to continue to do what matters to them. In this way, healthy ageing leads to improved individual and community wellbeing and benefits community members of all ages.

• Health across the life course: Young people are the older people of the future. Health and wellbeing in early and adult life often determines how long people will live and what their quality of life will be in older age. Preventing long-term physical and mental health conditions or delaying their onset will help support healthy ageing and address future demand on health and social care services. Working with whole communities will also nurture the support networks, which surround our older people and have a direct influence on their health and wellbeing. This will help to foster good relationships across generations, increasing intergenerational wellbeing and community cohesion.

• Older people as assets: Older adults have significant skills and experience to contribute to society. Encouraging and supporting older people to be actively involved in communities and creating opportunities to use and share their talents will help to build Southampton as a great place to live and work.

What can we do to promote healthy ageing?

Southampton City Council’s vision is for Southampton to be “a great city to grow old in”. A place where older people feel respected and valued members of their community and where they can contribute, both for the benefit of their community and for the benefit of their own wellbeing. Southampton will be a place where people can live safely in their own homes, as they grow old, where people approach older age with plans in place for how they want to live and what they want to do in later life. This will be supported by a strong and active voluntary and community sector, and a system of health and social care, which is integrated so that residents get the right care when they need it.

The overall vision and approach will be delivered through a framework for action, which sets out how we will work together with organisations, communities and residents in Southampton. We will take a whole systems approach to bring healthy ageing into all aspects such as travel, housing, employment, as well as provision of healthcare and social services. This will bring together existing and planned work already in place, supported by several key strategies and plans across the health and social care system. It will provide a framework that organisations working with older people can align their activities.

Southampton’s older population

In 2022, 37,768 people are aged 65 plus, this is 14.3% of Southampton's population. This age group is forecasted to grow faster than any other group in Southampton, a rise of 18.7% between 2022 and 2029 (Hampshire County Council – Small Area Population Forecast ).

When looking at the 2021 Census population, the number of older people aged 65 plus who are in an ethnic group other than white is 2,106 which is 6.1% of the over 65 population compared to 19.3% for the total Southampton population.

Just over 1 in 6 (17.3%) of people aged 60 or over in Southampton were living in poverty in 2019, significantly higher than the national average of 1 in 7 people (14.2%).

Older people's physical health

In 2022, 14.9% of Southampton's population reported having a long-term musculoskeletal (MSK) related condition, significantly lower than the England average of 17.6%. In Southampton, 11.1% of the population reported having at least two long-term health conditions (one of which being MSK-related), significantly lower than the England average of 12.8%. Southampton performs better than the majority of comparators in these measures.

In 2021/22, the rate of emergency hospital admissions due to falls in Southampton is 3,187 per 100,000 people aged 65 plus. Significantly higher than the England average of 2,109 per 100,000 and the highest amongst our comparators. The rate is even higher for those aged 80 plus at 8,013 per 100,000 people in Southampton over the same period. These rates of hospital admissions for falls increase with age across the country, but Southampton remains significantly higher than the average for England (5,311 per 100,000 population) and our comparators.

In 2022, 67.4% of people, aged 60-74 years, who were eligible for bowel cancer screening in Southampton participated in the programme. This is significantly lower than the average for England of 70.3% and lower than the majority of our comparators, although this is an increase of 12.3 percentage points since 2015 (55.1%) .

In 2022/23, the flu vaccine take-up was 79.6% for people aged 65 plus. This is statistically similar to the England average of 79.9% and above the benchmark goal of 75%.

Older people’s mental health

In 2017, it was estimated that 11.5% of people aged 65 plus in Southampton have common mental disorders, higher but not significantly than the average for England of 10.2%. In terms of older people, 36.7% of people aged 65 plus lived alone in 2011, significantly worse than the England average of 31.5%.

The average life satisfaction of adults aged 16 or over was 7.4 out of 10 in Southampton in 2021/22, lower than the national average of 7.6. The average happiness score was 7.4, which is lower than the England average score of 7.5. Whilst these scores have increased across the last decade overall, the scores for 2020/21 have dropped in relation to previous several years – likely due to the outcome of the pandemic. However, the scores have increased for 2021/22. (Personal well-being estimates by local authority - Office for National Statistics)

In 2023, the estimated dementia diagnosis rate for people aged 65 and over is 64.8% in Southampton, similar to the national average of 63.0%. Public Health England have set a benchmark of 66.7% for dementia diagnosis rates in people aged 65 plus.