THERE IS NO UPPER AGE LIMIT FOR DISEASE PREVENTION OR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 

The prevalence of disease and multi-morbidity increase with age. Not because of the biological process of ageing but because of three other factors:

• Loss of fitness as a result of inactivity, which is now accepted as a risk factor for most common conditions
• The effects of a person's environment from childhood and how they have responded to it - their Exposome which is now known to be more important than their genetic inheritance- -their Chromosome
• Social factors, notably deprivation 

The NHS offers important preventive services , notably immunisation, screening and the annual health check, which stops at 75, however the principal factors affecting the probability that an individual will suffer from disease, and how well they will cope if disease does develop are the factors listed above.  As such it is essential to engage communities in disease prevention and in helping people to reduce the risk of disease for example by improving the physical environment, by providing education about risk and by helping people to adapt. This includes support for communities of people facing the same challenge such as the work of  DiabetesUK and the Richmond Group. Access to these communities may be local, face to face, or digital  and W:ISH will play a vitally important part doing this as will Social Prescribing

BECOMING A PARTNER IN ADAPTING TO DISEASE 
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There is now strong evidence about thebenefits of non-drug therapy, particulalry exercise, in improving the outcome of almost all the long term conditions and one of the objectives of Live LongerBetter is to provide this knowledge to people with long term conditions, and provide them with information about local or digital opportunities for action. Clinical services are of course of vital importance but the patient and the communities of patients need to be enabled to becom partners. This will also increase wellbeingand this is of vital importance because, as the original WHO defintion of health in 1948 emphasised health is "not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" but also " a state of physical.mental and social wellbeing"
The Live Longer Better Guidebook to the journey to reach one's nineties in good health contains resources written primarily for people without clinical training, professionals and volunteers as well as members of the public

W:ISH
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It is essential to ensure that people over 75 receive best current knowledge about the potential for increasing wellbeing and preventing or delaying disease. W:ISH provides an automated knowledge service, delivering relevant information for a person who is at risk of a disease or has developed a disease.  This encompasses both local support and services, for example opportunities for health walks or joint pain groups near to where they live, and digital opportunities, for example a link to a support group organised by one of the national disease specific charities.

The NHS of course has a very important part to play in the diagnosis and treatment of disease with primary care and geriatric medicine playing a very important role but it is now clear that self care and care by the community which is of at least equal importance in both prevention long term adaptation to disease