A new study led by Natalia Balyasnikova, associate professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, is calling for a shift in how healthy aging is understood globally.
Published in the Journal of Global Ageing, the study responds to the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing, an international framework aimed at improving the lives of older adults through age-friendly environments, better care systems and efforts to combat ageism. While these priorities are important, Balyasnikova and her co-authors - all co-conveners of the Educational Gerontology Special Interest Group at the British Society of Gerontology - felt it reflected a recurring gap.
"Across global health and aging policy frameworks, learning is largely absent or treated as peripheral," she says. "We wanted to examine this omission more systematically and, importantly, to offer examples that demonstrate how participation in learning environments contributes to healthy aging and well-being."
To do so, the researchers turned to three real-world learning initiatives in Canada and the U.K. - projects they helped design, lead or facilitate. This first-hand involvement allowed them to analyze participant experiences in depth, rather than observe programs from a distance.
In Canada, older immigrants participated in the Seniors Storytelling Club, a 10-session, arts-based language-learning program where learners created oral, written and multimodal stories while building community with peers. In the U.K., the team examined two initiatives: a one-day intergenerational co-creation workshop that used movement, drawing and collaborative activities to explore sustainability; and the Ageing Well Public Talks, an ongoing public education series launched in 2019 that has reached more than 90,000 participants worldwide.
Because the researchers were embedded directly in these initiatives, they collected varied forms of data. For the storytelling club, this included in-class narrative work and follow-up interviews conducted over several months. The one-day workshop was video recorded, supplemented by participants' immediate reflections and post-event surveys. The public talks incorporated continuous feedback loops - short surveys after each session, annual questionnaires and voluntary testimonials - creating a multi-year record of participants' learning experiences.
Taken together, these cases offered insight across different time scales: from a single immersive day to a multi-week program to an ongoing, multi-year public learning platform.
Across all three, Balyasnikova explains, they found that "older learners pursue education for diverse purposes, often closely tied to well-being and social engagement." The study did not measure clinical outcomes such as physical health or functional ability; instead, it focused on perceived improvements in social connectedness, cognitive engagement, empowerment and sense of belonging.
Participants consistently reported increased confidence, stronger social ties and a renewed sense of purpose. Learning later in life, the study shows, supports cognitive, emotional and social growth - helping older adults challenge age-related stereotypes, remain mentally active and participate more fully in their communities.
The findings challenge the dominant policy perspective shaped in part by the World Health Organization, which defines healthy aging primarily in terms of maintaining functional ability. Balyasnikova says this narrow focus contributes to reductive narratives about older adults.
"Dominant narratives continue to cast older adults either as privileged individuals seeking only leisure or as vulnerable people in cognitive decline," she says. "These framings obscure the richness of learning later in life."
The study argues that overlooking learning as a core component of healthy aging is a missed opportunity in global policy. When learning does take place, it is often framed narrowly in terms of workforce participation rather than as a tool for well-being and inclusion.
Balyasnikova emphasizes the broader implications of the work. "Major policy frameworks on healthy aging rarely engage seriously with education. Addressing this gap is essential for rethinking what learning can look like across the life course," she says.
By calling for learning to be explicitly integrated into global frameworks, Balyasnikova and the study advocates for a more holistic, inclusive approach to policy.
"I hope the article contributes to shifting both policy and practice," she adds. "It makes the case for recognizing learning as integral to healthy aging frameworks and offers language to support advocacy for programming. But overall, we hope to add our voices to the growing global dialogue challenging reductive narratives about older adults."
This story was originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
