Longevity and research: a cross-cutting pathway from literature search into practical application

As early as 2007, the European Commission published a white paper titled “A Shared Commitment to Health: A Strategic Approach for the EU 2008-2013,” which underscored the primary goal of the European Union to “... promote good health in an aging Europe”. This highlights the need for global collaboration to improve our understanding of existing knowledge on the prevention and treatment of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Since 2018, Eastern Piedmont University has led efforts to address the challenges associated with aging through an interdisciplinary initiative, the UPO Aging Project. This project of excellence is funded by the Italian Ministry of Health. Against this backdrop, this dissertation aims to contribute to aging research by engaging in three distinct collaborative research initiatives: i) Longevity Check-Up, which focuses on nutrition, physical exercise, and psychological well-being; ii) UPO Biobank, part of the broader Novara Cohort Study (NCS); and iii) UPO SoGuD Prevention, dedicated to NCDs. Although the PhD candidate has actively participated in all three projects under the broader scope of the UPO Aging Project, the main focus of this thesis is on the UPO SoGuD Prevention initiative and its prospects for application. This initiative is a systematic summary of recommendations or best practices—developed according to a pre-established methodology—for the primary prevention of a single NCD, which is typically encountered from young adulthood to old age. The overarching goal of this project is to retrieve primary prevention guidelines for a specific group of NCDs common in adulthood and older age,