Focusing on older adults’ mental and physical capacities could be more effective than disease management in promoting healthy aging, according to the results of a new study.
Researchers from Peking University in Beijing conducted a literature review of 53 studies and found that most looked at intrinsic capacity — the composite of all physical and mental capacities in an individual — in depth. The intrinsic capacity framework considers cognition, mobility, psychological, vitality and sensory functions — a potential target for senior living providers and other long-term care providers already incorporating wellness into their community programming and offerings.
Older adults often have multiple health conditions that, when controlled, have little effect on their activities of daily living, the authors noted. That fact, they said, makes research focusing on the intrinsic capacity and functional abilities of older adults more meaningful. Their results were published in the March issue of JAMDA, the journal of AMDA–The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
A focus on IC is more effective
“Although diseases/deficits remain the current focus of health services for older adults, evidence suggests that focusing on IC of older adults is more effective than prioritizing health management for chronic diseases,” the authors wrote. “This suggests that older adults’ capacity may be an appropriate target and entry point for health interventions.”
The authors concluded that a focus on intrinsic capacity and disease should be balanced to better promote healthy aging in older adults. The discovery of diverse measures of intrinsic capacity also underscores the need for consensus on standardized measurements — many studies in the literature review did not look at sensory capacity — and calculation procedures, they said.
An indicator of health
The World Health Organization recently proposed intrinsic capacity as a multidimensional indicator of health, “accounting for the mental and physical capacity that are crucial to older people to continue doing what they value most,” according to a study in The Lancet.
In that study, the authors concluded that intrinsic capacity represents a unique opportunity for disseminating function-based assessments and integrated care of older adults living in diverse settings and with varying health conditions.
This article originally appeared on McKnight's Senior Living
