The Clinical Consortium on Healthy Ageing (CCHA), a forum of global experts that advances research and clinical practice related to healthy ageing, was established by WHO in 2015. The Consortium meets as a full group once a year, with its most recent meeting taking place online from 5 to 7 November 2024 with around 80 people from all WHO regions. 40% of participants at the 2024 meeting were from low- and middle-income countries, resulting from the Ageing and Health Unit's increased engagement with experts form these countries throughout 2024. Colleagues from WHO's regional offices and technical units also joined the meeting.
The objectives were to discuss:
- the biological mechanisms underlying the age-associated decline in intrinsic capacity and the potential contribution of diseases, including multimorbidity and HIV;
- the role of multimorbidity in the design and delivery of a personalized care plan;
- how to support the adaptation of integrated care for older people in low resource settings;
- innovative research to improve care for older people; and
- how to promote integrated care in life-threatening illness (palliative care) and with the context of climate change.
The meeting was organized around six main panels, involving 17 speakers from academia, civil society and WHO.
Panel 1 focused on palliative care and quality of dying. This marked the first time the CCHA has had a focused discussion on palliative care to promote a continuum of integrated care for people. Participants heard an overview of WHOs work on palliative care and its link with ageing, followed by a presentation on measurement of end-of-life care and quality of dying.
Panel 2 considered biomarkers and intrinsic capacity, and discussed research into the genetics of intrinsic capacity and an epigenetic clock and the implications for public health interventions.
Panel 3 included two presentations on multimorbidity, the first on the democratization of geroscience (which aims to identify biological drivers of the ageing process and links with diseases) followed by multimorbidity and implications for care.
Panel 4 looked at how to adapt integrated care for older people in low-resource settings, a key focus for the 2024 meeting. Smaller groups discussions focused on identifying existing good practices and potential actions and collaborative mechanisms to support sustainable implementation. These discussions were informed by a presentation on changes included in the upcoming second edition of the WHO handbook, Integrated care for older people guidance on person-centred assessment and pathways in primary care, and examples shared by presenters from Kenya, Mexico and Thailand.
Panel 5 addressed climate change and ageing. Following an overview of WHOs work on climate change, other presentations focused on heat stroke, the area with most evidence in relation to ageing and older people.
Panel 6, on research on care for older people, followed on from a discussion at the 2023 meeting on research prioritization and a presentation on healthy ageing for people living with HIV.
Potential opportunities for future action and collaboration, were identified. These include, but are not limited to, research on the quality of palliative care for older people and their carers, building collaboration to develop longitudinal research and evidence on healthy ageing from LMICs, capacity building of health workers on the management of diseases as a part of a person-centred integrated care, work on the development of an economic case on integrated care, research on the impact of climate change on the health of older people at higher risk and effectiveness of behavioural interventions for older people and engagement in pragmatic implementation research and randomized controlled trials for older people.
A full report of the CCHA 2024 meeting will be developed and disseminated in early 2025.
