BJD commits to tackle healthy ageing in Europe

To tackle the demographic challenge of ageing, the European Commission has launched the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) as an integral component of the Europe 2020 Strategy. By exploring and promoting effective innovative solutions, the Partnership aims to raise the average healthy lifespan of Europeans by two years by 2020.

The Bone and Joint Decade (BJD) has been invited to play a key working role in the partnership as part of the specific action for Frailty and Functional Decline.

The BJD has outlined its commitment to improve musculoskeletal health in Europe as one of the key barriers to active, healthy ageing which is essential to keep people economically independent throughout the life course. The BJD initiative will focus on providing data research and the tools that deliver data research. This will empower the musculoskeletal community, policy makers, employers, health workers and citizens to optimise their musculoskeletal health and enable active ageing throughout the life course.

The BJD initiative known as Musculoskeletal Data Research – Analysis Tool (M-RAT) will include four interdependent work-streams which are: 1) Preventing frailty 2) Enabling sustainability in the workplace 3) Enabling people to self-care their long term musculoskeletal health 4) Ensuring health workers understand musculoskeletal health issues and their link to ageing.

We look forward to our future involvement with the partnership. Click here to find out more about the partnership.