The article "Development of a common scale for measuring healthy ageing across the world: Results from the Athlos Consortium", published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, has been named Best Original Article in Epidemiology in 2021 by the Spanish Society of Epidemiology.

The research was carried out by Dr Carlos García Forero, head for the Epidemiology and Public Health Area of the Department of Medicine, and Dr Albert Sanchez-Niubo, lecturer of the Department of Medicine, representing UIC Barcelona, in collaboration with the consortium Ageing Trajectories of Health: Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies (ATHLOS) and the Research, Innovation and Teaching Unit of the Sant Joan de Deu Healthcare Park.

The Spanish Society of Epidemiology has praised the study for its quality, contributions and impact on public health. The research team used data from the ATHLOS project, a dataset of more than 300,000 people from 38 countries to create a scale that measures healthy ageing based on ATHLOS data on health and functionality in ageing, such as vitality, sensory acuity, mobility, cognition and ability to perform daily living tasks. This scale, based on statistical measurement methods that allow independent measures to be obtained with respect to the reference population, is universally applicable and allows direct comparisons between groups and individuals. 

The results of the study show international differences in healthy ageing, and suggest that its values are strongly related to the length of life free of diseases associated with old age. The researchers conclude that the scale makes it possible to identify critical points of the ageing process that could lead to public health interventions that promote healthy ageing.