The Roscongress Foundation’s Healthy Life project is organizing the session ‘Age and Image as Part of Social Attitude Towards Culture and Traditions’ as part of the thematic pillar ‘Creating a New Quality of Life for People’ within the business programme of the Eastern Economic Forum.

The session will be moderated by Elena Istyagina-Eliseeva, Director of the State Museum of Sports, Deputy Chairwoman of the Russian Public Chamber’s Commission on Physical Culture and Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle, and Research Supervisor of the Institute of Sports Management and Law at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The session participants include: Hovhannes Davidyan, Founder and CEO of Avicenna; Zalina Gurieva, Founder of Bionika Preventive Medicine Clinic; Alexandra Mukhotina, General Director of Medicine. Obstetrics. Gynaecology and Chief Physician of the Primavera Centre for Endocrine Health and Reproduction; and Ruslan Dreval, Research Supervisor, Expert Healthcare (North-West, Siberia, and the Far East); Expert, Social Policy Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, among others.

What is age? Does it depend on appearance, social status, or life accomplishments? According to the WHO, in 1955 the average life expectancy in the world was only 48 years. In 1995, the number rose to 65. By 2030, the average life expectancy in Russia should be 78 years. Today, the concept of ‘age’ has become a phantom. On one side are 20-year-old CEOs of large companies and 15-year-old influencers, while on the other side are people mastering new professions at 60. Medicine, bioprosthetics, cosmetology and plastic surgery are rapidly developing. The popularity of healthy lifestyle is gaining momentum. The key events that define social age are now distributed throughout a person’s life in a completely different way compared to 20 years ago. However, there are still age stereotypes we can hardly get rid of as they have become entrenched in our consciousness.

“Age is dictating our way of life less and less. Thanks to the spread of health preservation principles, more and more older people are not retiring at their first chance, but continue to be active participants in corporate and social life. The capabilities of modern medicine, programmes to prevent socially significant diseases, and the spread of healthy lifestyle principles are all lifting barriers today to the active lifestyle of people of any age,” Istyagina-Eliseeva said.

The panel session participants will discuss how much the age ‘census’ has changed, whether this is because we pay more and more attention to health in general and preventive medicine in particular, how big companies (including cosmetic companies) are encouraging this, what pitfalls there are in this regard, and what is the threat of the mass fad for body positivity from the point of view of clinical medicine.

The session will be held as part of the Health & Beauty project, which the Roscongress Foundation presented at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2022.

“The Health & Beauty project that was presented this year as part of the SPIEF is obviously vying to become a permanent platform at economic forums and beyond. It is important because, along with the increase in life expectancy, people are increasingly seeking to improve its quality. The project participants, which include leading preventive medicine clinics, cosmetic brands, and anti-age specialists, are ready to share their knowledge, exchange experience, and hold specialized events for everyone,” said Anastasia Stolkova, First Deputy Director for Development and Head of the Healthcare Directorate of the Roscongress Foundation .

The information partners of the Healthy Life project at the Eastern Economic Forum are: Doctor TV Channel, Pharmaceutical Bulletin, Medvestnik, GxP News, Healthcare of Russia, Social Protection in Russia, Remedium Group, Russian Doctor Publishing House, Expert Siberia and the Far East.