Environmental and Social Transformations, Population Ageing, and Sustainable Health Equity

Dear Colleagues,

Population ageing is accelerating worldwide, while older adults are increasingly exposed to rapid transformations in both natural and social environments. Climate change, air pollution, extreme weather events, urbanization, rural depopulation, digitalization, and restructuring of welfare and health systems jointly reshape the determinants of health in later life. These environmental and social changes do not affect all older populations equally; instead, they often exacerbate existing health inequalities across socioeconomic status, gender, region, migration status, and health system access.

From a sustainability perspective, health inequality among older adults reflects not only disparities in health outcomes, but also unequal exposure to environmental risks, unequal access to adaptive resources, and varying capacities to benefit from social and institutional support. Natural environmental stressors—such as heat waves, air pollution, and climate-related disasters—interact with social environments, including community infrastructure, health service organization, social protection systems, and digital inclusion, jointly shaping health trajectories in later life.

This Topic aims to bring together interdisciplinary research examining how changes in natural and social environments contribute to health inequalities among older adults, and how sustainable governance, policy interventions, community-level responses, and individual behaviours can mitigate these disparities. Contributions may adopt quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches, and may draw on perspectives from public health, gerontology, environmental studies, social policy, economics, and public administration.

By integrating evidence across different regions and institutional contexts, this Topic seeks to advance the theoretical understanding of socio-environmental determinants of health inequality in later life, while also offering policy-relevant insights for building age-friendly, resilient, and equitable health systems. The Topic is particularly aligned with MDPI journals focusing on sustainability, ageing, health services, and social sciences, and responds to growing global concerns regarding healthy ageing and inclusive sustainable development.

Prof. Dr. Xiaoting Liu
Dr. Chenkai Wu
Dr. Zhixin Feng
Topic Editors