This open access book provides insight on how to interpret capability in ageing – one’s individual ability to perform actions in order to reach goals one has reason to value – from a multidisciplinary approach. With for the first time in history there being more people in the world aged 60 years and over than there are children below the age of 5, the book describes this demographic trends as well as the large global challenges and important societal implications this will have such as a worldwide increase in the number of persons affected with dementia, and in the ratio of retired persons to those still in the labor market. Through contributions from many different research areas, it discussed how capability depends on interactions between the individual (e.g. health, genetics, personality, intellectual capacity), environment (e.g. family, friends, home, work place), and society (e.g. political decisions, ageism, historical period). The final chapter summarizes the differencesand similarities in these contributions. As such this book provides an interesting read for students, teachers and researchers at different levels and from different fields interested in capability and multidisciplinary research.
Hanna Falk Erhag (RN, PhD) is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Health and Care Sciences, and a senior researcher at Age Cap – Center of Ageing and Health at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Her work focuses specifically on self-rated health, functional ability, and resilience in older adults in relation to symptoms of chronic illness, functional disability, demographic, cognitive, behavioral risk and protective factors.
Ulrika Lagerlöf Nilsson (PhD, TD) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Historical studies and a senior researcher at Age Cap – Center of Ageing and Health at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research has mainly focused on gender and power in the field of health care professions during the late 19thand 20th century. Her currently research is dealing with age and ageing in a historical perspective, focusing specifically on the development of elderly care.
Therese Rydberg Sterner (PhD) is a researcher at Age Cap – Center of Ageing and Health at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Her work focuses specifically on depression in relation to behavioural and biological risks and protective factors in large population-based samples of older adults.
Ingmar Skoog (MD) is a Professor in Psychiatry and Director of Age Cap – Center of Ageing and Health at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. His research focuses mainly on neuro degenerative disorders in older adults, behavioral risks and protective factors in large population-based samples of older adults that have been followed with nearly identical health examinations for more than 40 years.
