Aligning Care with What Matters Most: Healthy People 2030 and The Age-Friendly Movement

The John A. Hartford Foundation is a recognized Healthy People 2030 Champion by the US HHS OASH Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion . Our Foundation pledges to advance the Healthy People 2030 vision of a society in which all people can achieve their full potential for health and well-being across the lifespan.

Healthy People 2030 is a powerful initiative. It provides 10-year, measurable public health objectives, along with tools to help track progress toward achieving them. The initiative closely aligns with our mission of improving the care of older adults, and with the Age-Friendly Health Systems and Age-Friendly Public Health Systems initiatives that our Foundation supports. We encourage any organization focusing on health or aging to become a Healthy People 2030 Champion. Together, we can drive improvements in health and well-being for all.

The importance of having conversations about health and what matters to you

One objective in the Healthy People 2030 initiative is to increase the proportion of adults who talk to their friends and family about their health. Talking about your health with others can be an important form of social support and can help you achieve positive health outcomes. Not having this support, or worse, being socially isolated, can lead to negative health impacts. Social isolation and loneliness have been identified as a public health crisis by the U.S. Surgeon General.

Using data from the Health Information National Trends Survey, the Healthy People 2030 dashboard shows that in 2017, 86.9% of all adults over age 18 reported having social support, or having friends or family members with whom they talk to about their health. The data can be stratified by age and show that older adults fared better, with 91.0% of people over age 65 in 2017 having these conversations.

Alarmingly, the most recent Healthy People 2030 data show this indicator has been worsening. By 2020, the rate dropped to 80.9% for all adults and 82.7% for adults ages 65+. That means nearly 1 in 5 adults were missing out on having conversations about their health, putting them at risk for poor health outcomes. The Healthy People 2030 goal for this objective is 92.3%, so we have just a few years to make the progress we need.

How age-friendly initiatives promote conversations about health and what matters

The John A. Hartford Foundation is taking steps to help move the needle on this objective related to health communication about what matters. We invite others to join us by engaging in these programs:

Age-Friendly Health Systems – an initiative of The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in partnership with the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association, and many others – promotes evidence-based, age-friendly care using the 4Ms Framework: what Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility. Age-friendly care starts by encouraging older adults to talk to their families and friends about their health goals and priorities, and to share those with their health care teams. This helps ensure that all care is aligned with what matters most to the older person and their family. Age-friendly care includes advance care planning so that older adults have conversations with their families about what’s important to them, especially if they become too sick to make decisions in the future. The Age-Friendly Health Systems movement and its 4Ms Framework have now spread to over 3,800 hospitals, practices, nursing homes and convenient care clinics across the country.

Related age-friendly programs, like Patient Priorities Care, offer tools such as MyHealthPriorities.org, which helps older adults and their families identify what matters to them, especially when faced with many complex health conditions. The Conversation Project provides starter guides for advance care planning, including how to identify your wishes for care, choose a healthcare proxy, and talk with your health care team. These programs and tools are freely available to all.

Increasing the proportion of older adults who talk to their friends and family about their health also aligns with the Age-Friendly Public Health Systems initiative, led by Trust for America’s Health in partnership with our Foundation. The initiative promotes healthy aging as a core function of local and state health departments. Public health systems that are age-friendly assess what is important to the older adults in their community and invest in supporting their needs. Age-Friendly Public Health Systems are promoting national discussions with regional aging and public health leaders to ensure social isolation and loneliness are priorities for health department assessments and plans.

Engage in age-friendly initiatives and advance Healthy People 2030 objectives

Health care teams from any setting are encouraged to join the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement through free 7-month Action Communities or in other ways. Learn how to encourage conversations about what matters through the 4Ms Framework. Visit Patient Priorities Care and The Conversation Project for practical tools to spark conversations about what matters for both current and advanced care planning.

State and local health departments, other public health organizations, and public health practitioners are encouraged to get involved in the Age-Friendly Public Health Systems initiative by utilizing its tools, monthly virtual trainings, and by joining the Age-Friendly Public Health Systems Recognition Program.  

JAHF is proud to champion Healthy People 2030 and we invite others to join us in encouraging more conversations about health and what matters. Start by exploring the Healthy People 2030 objectives that align with your work. Join our grant initiatives, use our resources, and share with us what you are doing to reach the Healthy People 2030 goals.

Learn more and apply to become a Health People 2030 Champion

Patient Priorities Care | Trust for America's Health | IHI 's The Conversation Project |

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