Healthy Aging Month

Healthy Aging Month

Every September, Healthy Aging® Month invites us to look at aging from a positive perspective: not as a process of loss, but as a stage that can be lived with physical, mental, social, and financial well-being. The observance, founded in 1992 by Carolyn Worthington and recognized by a unanimous U.S. Senate resolution in 2021, marks its 34th edition in 2026.

This year’s official theme is “Curiosity Has No Age Limit,” highlighting the role curiosity plays in helping us stay engaged, keep learning, discover new interests, and continue exploring what comes next at any age.

The 2026 theme: curiosity as a driver of well-being

According to Worthington, the founder of the observance, curiosity is not reserved for the young; it is one of the qualities that keep life interesting, meaningful, and rewarding at every age. This year’s theme recognizes curiosity as a powerful force for living a fuller, more engaged life, whether learning a new skill, exploring a different perspective, trying a new activity, traveling to an unfamiliar destination, or simply asking more questions.

The evidence supports this approach: research shows that lifelong learning, active social engagement, physical activity, and maintaining a sense of purpose contribute to overall well-being and quality of life in older adulthood.

Why this message matters in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is aging at a pace few jurisdictions in the world have experienced. The share of the population aged 65 and older rose from approximately 11–13% in 2000–2010 to 21% in 2019–2020 (Matos-Moreno et al., 2022; Matos-Moreno et al., 2021; Semprini et al., 2025). By 2020, Puerto Rico had a higher percentage of adults aged 65+ than Spain: the Island achieved in 20 years what took Spain 30 and Italy 35 (Matos-Moreno et al., 2021).

Unlike conventional aging, driven by declining fertility and increased longevity, Puerto Rico’s trajectory shifted from a linear to an exponential trend after 2010 due to accelerating outmigration concentrated in the working-age population (Matos-Moreno et al., 2021). More than 700,000 working-age adults (ages 20–64) have left in the past 15 years, a pattern not documented in any other region (Matos-Moreno et al., 2022).

Older adults in Puerto Rico are a disadvantaged group compared to those in the U.S. mainland in social and physical well-being, with approximately 39.7% living below the poverty level and an average income of $14,077 (Matos-Moreno et al., 2022). The most prevalent chronic conditions are hypertension (66.4–73%), arthritis (42.2%), and diabetes (33.5–34.9%) (Matos-Moreno et al., 2022; García et al., 2020), with higher prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and functional limitations than the overall U.S. population and other Hispanic older adults (Matos-Moreno et al., 2022; García et al., 2020).

Impact on family support systems

The outmigration of working-age adults has left older Puerto Ricans with fewer social resources, disrupted social networks, and increased social isolation, factors strongly associated with health and well-being in late life (Matos-Moreno et al., 2022; García et al., 2023). A 65-year-old in Puerto Rico in 2021 had an average of 5.6 close biological family members, down from 6.7 in 2000, with 71% of daughters residing in the United States (Matos-Moreno et al., 2025).

• Fewer potential caregivers: with fewer sons and daughters on the Island, the number of available family caregivers is reduced.
• Challenges to traditional caregiving norms: the traditional model of family caregiving in Puerto Rico is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.
• Greater burden on remaining caregivers: those who remain on the Island take on a heavier load, with less support to share it.

Approximately 89,369 older adults in Puerto Rico are grandparents living with their grandchildren, and 41.4% of them bear primary caregiving responsibility, a role that brings significant financial, emotional, and health challenges (Velázquez-Morales et al., 2024).

Compounding this, Puerto Rico receives lower federal funding for Medicare and Medicaid than the mainland, with Medicare reimbursement payments roughly 70% lower, which contributes to physician outmigration and strains the health care system (Crowe & Rivera-Hernandez, 2025; García et al., 2020).

Despite this landscape, healthy lifestyle behaviors, including nonsmoking, staying physically active, eating a high-quality diet, and getting adequate sleep, are consistently associated with successful aging, both physical and cognitive-psychosocial, among Puerto Ricans living in the mainland United States (Lee-Bravatti et al., 2020). This reinforces the central message of this bulletin: small habits, sustained with curiosity and social connection, make a real difference.

What We Need as a Society

Healthy aging does not depend on individual choices alone. Puerto Rico’s demographic shift, with smaller family networks and outmigration that has reduced caregiver availability, also calls for a societal response, an individual one.

• New models of care: community-based programs, home-based care services, and innovative housing models that allow older adults to age within their own community.
• Age-friendly environments: combating age discrimination and fostering physical and social environments that support the participation of older adults, as proposed by Puerto Rico’s Ten-Year Plan for Healthy Aging.

Puerto Rico’s accelerated aging demands policy responses that address health care access, caregiver support, and the transnational family structures that now define how people grow old on the Island (Matos-Moreno et al., 2025; García et al., 2020; García et al., 2023).

Community-based solutions: strengthening community support networks and intergenerational connections, particularly for older adults who live alone or whose close family members reside off the Island.

The individual actions listed below are a necessary complement, but they do not replace the need for a collective response.

Ten Ways to Celebrate “Curiosity Has No Age Limit”

Given this landscape, the following concrete actions proposed by Healthy Aging® Month, offer a practical and accessible way to apply this year’s theme in daily life:

1. Learn something new: take a class, attend a workshop, watch a tutorial, or explore a subject that has always interested you.
2. Explore your community: visit a museum, park, historic site, restaurant, or neighborhood you’ve never experienced before.
3. Try a new physical activity: consider walking, pickleball, yoga, tai chi, swimming, or dancing.
4. Read outside your comfort zone: choose a book, magazine, or article on a topic you know little about.
5. Connect with people of different generations: meaningful conversations across age groups offer fresh perspectives and new ideas.
6. Embrace technology: learn how to use a new app, device, or online tool that can enhance your daily life.
7. Pursing a creative interest: write, paint, photograph, cook, or make music simply for the joy of learning.
8. Ask more questions: curiosity begins with a willingness to wonder and explore.
9. Revisit an old dream: consider a hobby, destination, skill, or goal you’ve always wanted to pursue.
10. Say yes to a new experience: growth often begins when we step outside familiar routines.

Local Resources: Ten-Year Plan for Healthy Aging in Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rico Department of Health, through its Auxiliary Secretariat for Integral Health Services, leads the Ten-Year Plan for Healthy Aging in Puerto Rico, known by its Spanish-language acronym PDES (Plan Decenal de Envejecimiento Saludable): a collaborative initiative across sectors so that everyone can live a long, healthy life and keep doing what they value for as long as possible.

1. Plan action areas: combating age discrimination, providing integral care, fostering healthy environments, and strengthening long-term care.
2. PDES goals: enabling older adults to meet their basic needs, keep learning, move safely, maintain meaningful relationships, and contribute to their communities.
3. Phone: 787-765-2929, extensions 4538 and 4107.
4. Email: envejecimiento.saludable@salud.pr.gov
5. Online: www.salud.pr.gov — social media @desaludpr (Facebook, X, Threads, Instagram).

Additional Resources

The following organizations provide information, services, and support related to healthy aging:

Contributions of the ALLIANCE

The Alliance for Clinical and Translational Research (ALLIANCE), supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (Award 5P50GM133807), has been a key facilitator of health research in Puerto Rico, including studies related to the health of older adults.

References

1. Crowe, M., & Rivera-Hernandez, M. (2025). Care dynamics of Puerto Rico’s older adults: Dementia, caregiving, mental health, and outmigration. Innovation in Aging, 9. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaf122.1499
2. Puerto Rico Department of Health. (2020). Ten-Year Plan for Healthy Aging in Puerto Rico 2020-2030: Sociodemographic Profile of the Older Adult. https://www.salud.pr.gov/CMS/609
3. García, C., Rivera, F., Garcia, M. A., Burgos, G., & Aranda, M. (2020). Contextualizing the COVID-19 era in Puerto Rico: Compounding disasters and parallel pandemics. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 76, e263-e267. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa186
4. García, C., Garcia, M. A., McEniry, M., & Crowe, M. (2023). The neighborhood context and all-cause mortality among older adults in Puerto Rico. Frontiers in Public Health, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.995529
5. Lee-Bravatti, M. A., O’Neill, H. J., Wurth, R. C., Sotos-Prieto, M., Gao, X., Falcón, L. M., Tucker, K., & Mattei, J. (2020). Lifestyle behavioral factors and integrative successful aging among Puerto Ricans living in the mainland United States. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa259
6. Matos-Moreno, A., Santos-Lozada, A. R., Mehta, N., De Leon, C. M. F., Lê-Scherban, F., & De Lima Friche, A. A. (2021). Migration is the driving force of rapid aging in Puerto Rico: A research brief. Population Research and Policy Review, 41, 801-810. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-021-09683-2
7. Matos-Moreno, A., Verdery, A. M., Mendes de Leon, C. F., De Jesús-Monge, V. M., & Santos-Lozada, A. R. (2022). Aging and the left behind: Puerto Rico and its unconventional rapid aging. The Gerontologist, 62(7), 964-973. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnac082
8. Matos-Moreno, A., Alburez-Gutierrez, D., Williams, I., Verdery, A. M., Fernández Soto, M., & Santos-Lozada, A. R. (2025). Kinship structures for left behind older adults in high outmigration contexts: Evidence from Puerto Rico. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaf052
9. Semprini, J., Pabón-Rodríguez, F., Santiago-Rodríguez, E. J., & Almodóvar-Rivera, I. A. (2025). Quantifying the burden of cancer in Puerto Rico’s oldest residents. Cancer Epidemiology, 97, 102838. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2025.102838
10. Velázquez-Morales, F., Sierra-López, J. L., Rivera-Ortiz, M., & Góngora, Y. G. (2024). S18: Comprehensive care for the elderly: From stigmatization to therapeutic intervention. International Psychogeriatrics, 36, 32-36. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1041610224001212