The Economic and Societal Imperative of Lifecourse Prevention (Nicola Veronese)

The presentation was delivered and recorded during the 10th Lifecourse Prevention Summit 2025.

In this briefing, Nicola Veronese, makes the case for a lifecourse approach to prevention, arguing that healthy aging must be built from early life and that infectious diseases are among the most significant but underestimated threats to the health and functional capacity of older adults. He presents evidence that infections such as influenza increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, disability, and poor quality of life in older people, and highlights the economic cost of inaction, including evidence that vaccination delivers substantial returns to society relative to its cost.

Veronese also addresses vaccine hesitancy and the role of poverty and social inequalities in driving lower vaccination rates among older populations, and calls for vaccination to be more explicitly integrated into broader prevention frameworks for healthy aging.

His central message is that we already have the tools to prevent much of this burden, and that geriatric care settings represent an important opportunity to close vaccination gaps in the most vulnerable older adults. This session further explores the subject in depth, highlighting key takeaways, implications for policy and practice, and insights from the expert presenter to help inform future strategies.