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	Active Ageing Index	Healthy Aging Index Construction
Field	Social Gerontology	Social Gerontology
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2013	2014
Originator	Asghar Zaidi and colleagues (UNECE and European Commission, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research)	Jason L. Sanders, Anne B. Newman, and colleagues (Cardiovascular Health Study; Long Life Family Study)
Type	Composite index of the untapped potential of older people for active ageing	Composite physiologic index of multisystem biological aging
Seminal source	Zaidi, A., Gasior, K., Hofmarcher, M. M., Lelkes, O., Marin, B., Rodrigues, R., Schmidt, A., Vanhuysse, P., & Zolyomi, E. (2013). Active Ageing Index 2012: Concept, Methodology and Final Results. European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna.	Sanders, J. L., Minster, R. L., Barmada, M. M., Matteini, A. M., Boudreau, R. M., Christensen, K., Walston, J. D., Newman, A. B. (2014). Heritability of and mortality prediction with a longevity phenotype: the healthy aging index. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 69(4), 479-485.
Aliases	AAI, UNECE Active Ageing Index, Active Aging Index, EU Active Ageing Index	HAI, Healthy Ageing Index, Multisystem Healthy Aging Index, Physiologic Aging Index
Related	4	4
Summary	The Active Ageing Index (AAI) is a composite indicator that measures the untapped potential of older people to contribute to the economy and society and to live independently. Developed jointly by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Commission and documented by Asghar Zaidi and colleagues in 2013, it summarizes how far older men and women realize their potential for active and healthy ageing. The index is organized into four domains: employment; participation in society; independent, healthy, and secure living; and capacity and the enabling environment for active ageing. Across these domains it aggregates 22 individual indicators drawn largely from existing comparative surveys. Each indicator is normalized to a common scale, combined within its domain, and then weighted across domains into a single overall score that allows countries to be compared and ranked. The AAI was created to support evidence-based ageing policy in the European Union and beyond, providing a benchmarking tool for member states. It treats active ageing not as a property of exceptional individuals but as something policy and the environment can enable across the whole older population.	The Healthy Aging Index (HAI) is a simple composite that summarizes the burden of subclinical physiologic decline across several organ systems into a single score. Introduced by Jason Sanders, Anne Newman, and colleagues in 2014 using the Cardiovascular Health Study, it captures the idea that biological aging is a multisystem process rather than the failure of any one organ. The index combines five readily measured markers, one from each of five physiologic systems: systolic blood pressure (vascular), fasting glucose (metabolic), Mini-Mental State Examination score (cognitive), serum creatinine (renal), and forced vital capacity (pulmonary). Each marker is scored 0, 1, or 2 according to which tertile of risk an individual falls into, and the five scores are summed to give a total from 0 to 10, with higher values indicating worse aging. The HAI predicts mortality and was shown to be heritable, supporting its interpretation as a phenotype of biological aging. Its appeal lies in being inexpensive, transparent, and built from routine clinical measurements rather than specialized assays.