The process of population aging is gradually deepening, and the problems of disability, cognitive impairment and frailty are widely prevalent among the elderly in China. The key to healthy aging is to optimize functional ability, which is not only related to healthy people; many older adults suffer from one or more diseases, which do not affect their functional ability. The health of the elderly is affected by multi-dimensional factors such as heredity, environment, lifestyle, social behavior and mental psychology. Previous studies, focusing on the outcomes of death, diseases, functional ability and intrinsic capacity decline, have revealed a series of distribution characteristics and influencing factors, and found that there are special epidemiological characteristics on health among the oldest-old and are different from that in the general elderly. Nevertheless, there are still insufficient research to identify the key factors and related mechanisms of elderly health. This issue focused on the functional ability, intrinsic capacity and disease outcomes of the elderly, carried out analysis and research by using the data of national representative cohort and key areas, and made a series of explorations on the important factors and possible mechanisms of the elderly health, so as to provide scientific evidence for coping with population aging and health in China.
我国人口老龄化和高龄化程度逐渐加深，老年人失能、失智、虚弱等综合征广泛流行。健康老龄化的关键是改善功能发挥，其不仅仅与健康个体相关，许多老年人患一种或多种疾病，但不影响其功能发挥。老年人健康受遗传、环境、生活方式、社会行为和精神心理等多维度因素影响，前期研究围绕死亡、疾病、功能受损和内在能力下降等发现了老年人健康的一些分布特征和影响因素，且发现高龄老人存在不同于一般老人的特殊健康规律，但在老年健康关键因素识别和相关机制研究仍存在不足。本期重点号围绕老年人功能发挥、内在能力和疾病结局，利用全国代表性队列和重点地区数据开展分析研究，对老年人健康的重要因素及可能机制进行了一系列探索，为我国人口老龄化与健康应对提供科学证据。.