Psychosocial Interventions To Improve Successful Aging

2 September 2003 | Volume 139 Issue 5 Part 2 | Pages 400-402

Interventions designed to encourage people to change high-risk behavior have not been very successful. This is an important challenge because the number of older people in the population will double within the next 20 to 30 years. The increase will put enormous strain on an already overburdened medical care system. We therefore will need to put more emphasis on disease prevention programs. Helping people change high-risk behavior will be the key to prevention. To develop more effective prevention programs, we will have to train a new generation of experts who can not only provide people with risk information but also work with them as partners in achieving mutually agreed upon goals.

Author and Article Information

From University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.

Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest: None disclosed.

Requests for Single Reprints: S. Leonard Syme, PhD, Division of Public Health, Biology & Epidemiology, University of California School of Public Health, 140 Warren Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360; e-mail, slsyme{at}uclink4.berkeley.edu.