Ageing trends in Europe shows that in the coming decades, the high number of ’baby boomers’ will increase the number of elderly people, reaching 28.7% of the EU-28’s population those aged 65 years or over by 2080. Moreover thanks to the advances in technology, health care and pharmacological treatments, life expectancy has also notably increased. However, despite this statistically predicted life expectancy rise, the quality of life in recent years may have actually decreased, due to the prevalence of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. More than half of people aged 50–64 already report having a chronic condition, and nearly 91% of adults aged 75 and older suffer from one or more chronic conditions Unhealthy behaviours like poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking, etc. contribute largely towards incurring preventable chronic conditions. To avoid them, different measures have been proposed, such as an encouragement for people to make healthier behavioural and consumption choices These actions are even more effective when they are supported by personalised health and wellbeing coaching services, that aim to raise awareness about healthier lifestyles to improve the overall quality of people’s lives.
The WellCo solution will provide a novel approach to promoting healthier lifestyles for longer life expectancy, by providing personalized advice, guidance and follow-up of users for the adoption of healthier behaviour choices.
