The number of Americans 65 and older will more than double by 2060—and not everyone has a shot at living out their golden years with good health and well-being.

Recognizing that public health professionals are poised to promote longer and healthier lives for all Americans, Drs. Marissa Levine, a USF College of Public Health (COPH) professor of public health practice, and Kathy Black, a COPH affiliate professor and professor in USF’s School of Aging Studies, developed the Equitable Healthy Aging Toolkit. They were supported in their efforts by the Trust for America’s Health and the National Association of City and County Health Officials.

The toolkit was funded by a grant from AARP.

The Equitable Healthy Aging Toolkit aims to increase the capacity of public health departments to enhance equitable health and well-being of older adults and promote healthy aging across the life course in community health improvement practice.

“Kathy and I have been talking to public health leaders not only about the systems in our communities that perpetuate health disparities, particularly in the aging community, but also how to change or evolve those systems so they produce better, more equitable health outcomes,” said Levine, explaining the impetus behind the toolkit.

“People don’t just end up at age 65 with health conditions,” Black added. “Everything that came before it affects health later in life. And some people are disadvantaged from an early age. Maybe they had a low birth weight, or they were hungry during school, or they didn’t finish high school or they worked in manual labor. All these midstream factors affect where you end up, health-wise, later in life.”

The toolkit includes sections on equitable healthy aging principles (for example, that healthy aging is a basic human right), developing an age-friendly public health system framework (e.g., conducting needs assessments on older adults) and identifying and leveraging strategies and resources that advance equitable healthy aging.

“Interestingly, older Americans are less engaged with public health systems [than their younger counterparts],” Levine said. “We thought the toolkit would be helpful for public health departments as they perform their community needs assessments and community improvement plans. We wanted to bring attention to the systems that public health professionals can influence.”

So far, says Black, health departments are reacting favorably to the toolkit.

“In five of our counties in Florida, a third of the population is over 65,” said Black. “The toolkit gives them guidance and resources on how they can integrate healthy aging concepts and principles into their services. I hope this toolkit helps every person in public health recognize the entire lifespan, using an age lens and not just a health lens, across all the work they do.”

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health