Gerontology: Planning The 100-Year Life

As the population is growing old and people are expected to live through a hundred years, it is essential to build a society in which every member from the young to the elderly, can thrive and live with safety and dignity. With this aim, we conduct a community-oriented, multidisciplinary ‘Gerontology research’ in which arts and science are integrated, including medicine-engineering collaboration. We implement ‘Action research’ that focus on solving practical problems of aging society and thereby put forward evidence-based proposals for tackling policy. In detail, our unit suggests importance of frailty prevention focusing three pillars (nutrition/oral health, exercise, and social participation) with our evidences by a large-scale longitudinal cohort study. Further, we suggest a feasible program of frailty prevention entitled “Building a Healthy, Age-Friendly Community through comprehensive Frailty Prevention in Older Adults,” which is currently being implemented across many municipalities in Japan.

In addition to pursue a healthy life, we aim to design a community in which each member has a chance to learn, engages in and achieves its goals. Especially for the second life of older adults, we build the system of employment promotion and its platform. Finally, we will conduct research and support evidence-based policy making (EBPM) to redesign communities based on the concept of an inclusive society for all generations (including age-friendly cities and communities) and with the goal of sustaining healthy long lives.

To enhance independence of older adults and prolong a healthy life, this unit aims to design a sustainable community through 100-year life with multidisciplinary viewpoints, which based on self-help, mutual assistance, and public assistance for early-phase prevention of frailty to care in a step by step manner or as required.

1.Frailty prevention study for achieving healthy long lives

•  A large-scale longitudinal cohort study
•  Developing system for health and age-friendly communities
• Evidence-based prediction of frailty at an extremely early stage using AI (artificial intelligence)
• Future simulation of health economics expected by early-stage preventive intervention of frailty (including preventive interventions of fall and fracture).
• Research for deleterious effects (secondary health impairment) of the COVID-19 on frailty of older adults through inactivity of life, disruption of eating habit, malnutrition, decline of social network. Building of a feasible community for new normal style.

2.Lifelong active

• Building a community in which each member can learn, engage in, and achieve their goals regardless of their age.
• Employment promotion for older adults to pursue their second life and its foundation building

3. Livelihood support with safety

• Development of a next-generation, community-based integrated care system with a seamless collaboration of life support services, home medical care, and long-term care for independent and safety life
• Integrated support design for improving the quality of life of all older adults through the implementation of gerontechnology.