Healthy aging
Focusing on the elderly from 1984 onwards
Because the cohorts of the Seven Countries Study and the general population were growing older, a decision was made to follow the increasingly older cohorts to study aging in the elderly – and its associations with various factors including diet and lifestyle. The small cohort of survivors in Zutphen was supplemented with a new community sample of the same age. Thus, new studies were started in the elderly with a focus not only on the determinants of cardiovascular disease but also of healthy aging.The FINE study and the HALE project assessed what healthy aging actually entailed and studied in particular the influence of diet, lifestyle and risk factors on different aspects of health.
The three studies in the elderly
The FINE study
Additional field surveys were made among the elderly in Finland, the Netherlands and rural Italy and in Serbia and Crete. This formed the Finland, Italy, Netherlands Elderly study (FINE).
The HALE project
The HALE project (Healthy aging: a Longitudinal study in Europe) started in 2001 with the aim to analyze the 35-year follow-up data of the Seven Countries Study and the 10-year follow-up data of the FINE study, and the Survey Europe on Nutrition in the Elderly: a Concerted Action study (SENECA).
The Zutphen Elderly Study
The Zutphen Elderly Study is an extension of the original Zutphen Study with a sample of the same age. The Zutphen Elderly Study was the only cohort of the FINE study and the HALE project in which detailed information on the diet of all the participants was collected four times between 1985 and 2000.
Main healthy aging topics
All-cause mortality
Here we present the results of predictors of CVD outcomes in relation to all-cause mortality, a proxy variable for life expectancy.
Mental health
In the elderly, a decline in mental health may have severe consequences of quality of life. We describe here predictors of mental health.
Functional status
Physical activity and other lifestyle choices may influence the physical functioning of the body.