What’s Public Health Got to do with… Aligning Healthy Aging with Health-Related Frameworks?

Supporting healthy aging is a complex challenge that requires coordination across disciplines.

In 1920, less than 5 percent of the U.S. population was 65 and older. A century years later, older adults in the U.S. accounted for over triple that number, comprising about 17 percent of the country’s population and this population is expected to grow to 24 percent by 2060. In addition, the older adult population is also becoming more diverse demographically and in terms of health and social needs.

Public health has an important role to play in ensuring that programs and policies are in place that equitably enhance older adult health and well-being. TFAH’s Age-Friendly Public Health Systems’ (AFPHS) 6Cs Framework helps guide public health’s role in supporting older adult health. How can we make sure that it   is broadly embraced by the public health sector?

One answer to this question is aligning the AFPHS 6Cs Framework with other frameworks being implemented by the public health sector. By orienting the 6Cs alongside existing public health work, practitioners and organizations can more clearly see how expanding age-friendly public health fits within existing policies and programs.

Frameworks to Guide Roles in Healthy Aging

AFPHS 6Cs Framework for Supporting Healthy Aging
The AFPHS 6Cs Framework for Supporting Healthy Aging guides public health strategies that support the older adult population. The 6Cs also provide flexibility in implementation for state and local public health departments whose jurisdictions and populations face unique challenges.

The 10 Essential Public Health Services
The 10 EPHS are fundamental to promoting the health of “all people in all communities.” This framework organizes strategies into three categories: assessment, policy development, and assurance. The 10 EPHS were developed to inform public health planning at all levels, with the goal of being widely applicable and useful for the variety of subspecialties within the field.

The Healthy Brain Initiative (HBI) Road Map
The HBI Roadmap is a framework for public health systems to promote brain health and support older adults with dementia as well as their caregivers. Through a collaboration between the Alzheimer’s Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HBI Road Map seeks to advance the inclusion of brain health as “a central part of public health practice” by providing actionable steps for public health jurisdictions to take in order to integrate this work into their existing activities.

Healthy People 2030
The Healthy People 2030 initiative is overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and identifies public health priorities for individuals, organizations, and communities. Every decade, new goals and objectives are set, a plan of action is developed to provide jurisdictions with tools and evidence-based resources to achieve these aims, and data evaluation measures are identified. The five topic areas of Healthy People 2030 are health conditions, health behaviors, population groups, settings and systems, and social determinants of health.

Commonalities Among Frameworks

AFPHS 6Cs and the 10 EPHS
The AFPHS 6Cs and the 10 EPHS are both centered on advancing health equity. Applying an equity lens to each tenet of the AFPHS 6Cs framework can lead to recognizing and mitigating health disparities and promoting inclusion. The 10 EPHS were revised in 2020 to add equity as a guiding principle for public health practice leading to optimal health for all and removing “systemic and structural barriers that have resulted in health inequities.”

AFPHS 6Cs and the HBI Road Map
The AFPHS 6Cs and the HBI Road Map emphasize the importance of data in furthering public health goals and practices. One of the 6Cs is devoted solely to highlighting the need for increased data collection, analysis, and translation about older adult health and well-being. A key goal of the HBI Road Map is evaluating and utilizing data as and highlighting “data availability, quality, and utilization” and “data-informed decision-making action” as specific outcomes for state and local public health practitioners. Without adequate data, public health cannot identify gaps, barriers, or successes as the field seeks to support healthy aging.

AFPHS 6Cs and Healthy People 2030
Both the AFPHS 6Cs and Healthy People 2030 prioritize the importance of communicating in an accessible, effective, and informed manner. One of the 6Cs focuses on communicating important information to the older adult population in a culturally appropriate manner, as well as communicating with potential partners to advocate for public health’s role in healthy aging. Healthy People 2030 changed previous definitions of health literacy to “emphasize people’s ability to use health information, incorporate a public health perspective, and acknowledge that organizations have a responsibility to address health literacy.” With this change, Healthy People 2030, similar to the AFPHS 6Cs, allocates additional focus to ensuring that understandable, practical communication is a key activity of public health organizations.

All of these shared goals and foundational objectives provide assurance for the public health sector that healthy aging can be aligned with existing activities. Adoption and implementation of the AFPHS 6Cs Framework can lead to a more comprehensive public health practice that supports people across the life course.

See these resources for additional information: