Mobile Health for Ageing (mAgeing) handbook released by WHO

Health information, advice, and reminders delivered through mobile phones can encourage healthy behaviors and help older people to improve and maintain their intrinsic capacity. The WHO mobile health for Ageing (mAgeing) programme has been developed as one of the tools to support the implementation of WHO guidelines on community-level interventions to manage declines in intrinsic capacity – also known as the ICOPE Guidelines (Integrated Care for Older People).
The provision of integrated care is key for older people. The ICOPE Guidelines propose evidence-based recommendations for health care professionals to prevent, slow or reverse declines in the physical and mental capacities of older people. These recommendations require countries and regions to place the needs and preferences of older adults at the centre and to coordinate care. The guidelines will allow countries and regions to improve the health and well-being of their older populations, and to move closer to the achievement of universal health coverage for all at all ages.
The mAgeing programme can support routine care offered by health care professionals by supporting self-care and self-management.
A newly published Handbook helps countries and regions develop, run, monitor, and evaluate the mAgeing programme within their own contexts, using basic technology common to most mobile phones. Messages within the handbook are based on the latest WHO guidelines on community-level interventions to manage declines in intrinsic capacity (ICOPE guidelines), and built on behavioral change theory. The handbook was developed by the Be He@lthy, Be Mobile initiative, a partnership led by WHO and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and developed in consultation with a wide range of external stakeholders.
Download the mAgeing handbook