This study analyses how the Italian Regional Prevention Plans address active and healthy ageing. It focuses on implementation, adopted strategies, and regional differences in promoting health and quality of life in older age. The theoretical framework is based on public policy analysis and local welfare systems, adopting the biopsychosocial health paradigm, which considers well-being as the result of biological, psychological, and social factors.
The National Prevention Plan 2020–2025 serves as the reference for regional planning and promotes a “life-course” approach, investing in physical and mental health throughout all stages of life. The study explores how the Regional Prevention Plans reflect a broader orientation toward public health promotion, prioritising empowerment and capacity-building strategies.
The data comes from the 21 Regional Prevention Plans for 2020–2025 and was analysed using a mixed-method approach: document analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, including advanced language models. The study identified two main themes: promotion of physical activity and well-being, and regional differences in implementation.
Preliminary findings highlight a predominant focus on the healthcare sector, with limited socio-health integration. Moreover, there is little explicit attention to emerging social risks, such as demographic ageing, which are rarely addressed through targeted preventive programs.

Recent trends in the United States suggest a stagnation, and even reversal, of life expectancy gains. This shift raises critical questions about the mechanisms of morbidity compression, wherein disease onset is delayed and health spans are extended. In this study, we investigate the trend of morbidity compression in the US, focusing on cardiovascular disease and diabetes as primary drivers of late-life health outcomes. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 1990 to 2023, we construct a pseudo-panel of cohorts to examine morbidity trends over cohorts. Our analysis employs flexible regression techniques (e.g., Polymars and random forests) to capture nonlinearities and interactions among key covariates such as BMI, smoking, race, gender, income, and education.
Preliminary results suggest a turning point in cardiovascular morbidity for cohorts born after the 1940s, with a possible increase in morbidity following the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, diabetes prevalence shows a steady increase both over time and across successive birth cohorts, consistent with a pattern of morbidity expansion. This is likely tied to the continuing obesity epidemic, which disproportionately affects more recent cohorts.
The generational deterioration in health highlights the urgent need for public health interventions targeting metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors. Our study highlights the need for public health interventions targeting risk factors and contributes to the growing literature on worsening population health trajectories, even in countries with advanced medical systems.

Making resilient European Welfare state systems requires an extraordinary change in our societies. In recent years, International and European agencies released several reports and policy briefs to foster these changes through healthy and active ageing to mitigate the impact of the demographic and epidemiologic transition. Italy, consequently, has passed numerous laws and norms on the subject at the national and subnational levels.

Our research focused on the analysis of the comprehensive regulatory production on this topic of the different levels of Italian Governance, including a sample of authorities at the local level: Regions, Local Health Units and Municipalities. For instance, about 350 documents were found and taken into account for the analysis at the regional level. The map of the distribution of such norms was compared with the International and European recommendations extracted from reports and policy briefs on the topic, in order to identify possible gaps and sectors of improvement to be addressed to policy makers at all levels.

The preliminary results show a large production of norms and policies aimed at promoting healthy and active ageing, both at the National and subnational level. But, taking a perspective of Health in All Policies, the map appeared leopard-spotted: several relevant strategies, like for example Support for a longer working life or Market regulations or Home and cities adaptation, don’t seem to have adequate consideration. On the other hand, the management of chronic diseases, frailty and disability, topics that are not included in our research, have an overflowing representation.

Moreover, the 21 Regional Plans for prevention appear inconsistent with international recommendations (WHO) regarding the linkage between prevention and promotion. They only seem to adopt an active aging perspective in rare cases.

Recently, with the implementation of the Legislative Decree 29/2024, an effort is being made in order to adopt a comprehensive vision about this topic that is more up-to-date and adequate for an aging society. "Aging well in all policies" or "active aging in all policies" could be a perspective to consider in the planned first national plan of active ageing, in order to promote policies aimed at community engagement. This could be done by both implementing policies nationwide, and believing that building a society that is friendly to older people begins in schools, workplaces, and obviously places where health systems are implemented.

Over the past six decades, global demographic trends have been characterized by increased life expectancy and declining fertility rates, resulting in profound shifts in population structure. These transformations pose significant challenges to the sustainability and equity of welfare systems. This study reviews policy recommendations from major international organizations aimed at promoting Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA). A structured search strategy, incorporating targeted Google searches and snowballing techniques, was employed to identify policy-relevant documents published between 2008 and 2023. Documents were included if they were directed at policymakers and provided recommendations on AHA; documents focusing exclusively on treatment, frailty, or child and youth populations were excluded. A total of 33 reports met the inclusion criteria, yielding 554 policy actions. These were classified across 19 policy sectors and synthesized into 14 strategies. The Health sector accounted for the highest proportion of actions (37.5%), followed by Labor, Social Welfare, and Civil Rights. Strategies encompassed the promotion of equitable access to services, prevention of non-communicable diseases, support for extended working lives, facilitation of ageing in place, reduction of socio-economic disparities, and legislative reform. Actions ranged from fiscal incentives for healthy behaviors to flexible retirement policies. The findings showed the necessity of a multisectoral, long-term, and equity-driven approach to ageing policy. While empirical evidence remains limited—often based on expert consensus—the proposed classification offers a structured framework to guide national and local policy development towards sustainable, integrated systems that promote wellbeing throughout the life course.