Beyond Individual Choices and Biology: Social Pathways to Ageing Well and Practical Interventions

This interactive workshop explores how social and structural conditions across the life course shape health and well-being in later life. Drawing on social demography and gerontology, it introduces evidence-informed frameworks for understanding how health risks are shaped by education and income, work histories, housing and neighborhoods, family structure, and access to social resources.

Participants will examine how these pathways generate disparities in physical and cognitive health, functional decline, and healthcare utilization among older adults. The session then moves to application: using concrete examples, participants will consider how to translate these insights into realistic strategies for ageing well that reflect older adults’ lived conditions.