How to age well? Specialist in healthy ageing gives his tips on adding life to your years

He did not win the US$250,000 prize, but Jed Ray Gengoba Montayre was one of 10 finalists out of 100,000 candidates for the 2025 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award. The award recognises outstanding contributions to the nursing field. Montayre, a gerontologist – or healthy ageing specialist – and associate professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Nursing, was considered for the award for his groundbreaking research. He has spent half his life doing research on ageing, from how to counter loneliness to interventions for cognitive impairment. He has pioneered innovative care models for older people and worked on World Health Organization projects. He is also currently writing a book on how to age well. With all this under his belt, one might expect Montayre to be long in the tooth himself, but he is just 38. Montayre has been a keen learner since his childhood in the Philippine province of Cebu. He skipped grades twice in primary school, entered university aged 15, graduated from the University of the Visayas at 19 and became a registered nurse in 2007. Before taking up his current position in Hong Kong in 2022, he worked as a nurse and nurse educator in New Zealand – where he earned his PhD – and as a lecturer and associate professor at Western Sydney University in Australia. While working in hospitals, Montayre came to notice that most patients admitted to surgical wards were 60 or older. This triggered his interest in gerontology, specifically in finding ways to help people age well to avoid the need for hospital care. Montayre says it is important for nurses to understand how to manage issues of older patients in their care. Medical advances may be enabling people to live longer, but not necessarily in good health. The question for him is: how do you actually add life to years? Part of the answer, he has learned, is to have a strong network as you age. Another realisation Montayre had while working in hospitals was that many older patients did not have a reliable caretaker or close contact – and that this usually only came to light when they were being discharged. “No one was picking them up because the patient was living alone,” he says. Thus began his research into preventing social frailty – a condition in which older adults lack access to social networks and support systems that could help them live a fruitful, healthy life. “Healthy ageing is really socially determined. There are a lot of studies in Japan and internationally that [show that] it only takes two years for a socially frail older adult to develop permanent physical disability,” Montayre says. “The whole emotional, stressful trigger of being socially frail actually leads to physical symptoms, which then eventually lead to physical disorder.” Without people they can trust with their care, elderly people may miss medical appointments, forget to take medication or take the wrong one, accept bad advice, and more. Montayre is working on two projects to raise awareness of the problem and help prevent it. One is a checklist of around 15 items for medical professionals to assess social frailty in older people. “This is something that can be used in the hospitals, in community care settings, before we discharge older people, or even during admission,” he says. It will help healthcare workers make decisions regarding follow-up appointments, social work referrals and ways to strengthen a patient’s social connections. Montayre says any recommendation must align with the patient’s wants and needs, so that “it’s actually what people need and not necessarily what we think they need”. For example, an older person who lives alone may not be lonely. “It might be a lifestyle choice,” he says. The second project is a telecare platform co-designed by older adults, for older adults, that will allow them to connect online based on their interests and help them make decisions in daily life. Users will be able to check how busy a railway station is at a given time to help them avoid crowds – especially if they have disabilities that hinder their mobility. Montayre’s passion for helping older people live longer, healthier lives intensified after his father died “quite young” from complications related to diabetes in 2022 at the age of 66. It served as a wake-up call for Montayre. “I was a little bit overweight,” he says. “I started exercising, I started dieting, and from there, of course, your body responds. Your metabolism increases. It becomes a habit.” To help others age well, Montayre promotes maintaining social connections and building healthy habits from an early age. He recommends middle-aged people ensure that they eat well, get enough sleep and make time to exercise. This includes keeping cholesterol levels in check and eating enough protein to offset the loss of muscle mass, which can come with age. Getting enough sleep is especially important for older adults. “It improves memory, it allows your brain to recharge and you feel better the following day,” Montayre says. He advises people to commit to exercising for 30 minutes a day in ways they enjoy – no excuses. “Some people think, ‘I’m really tired, I’m not motivated, I don’t want to exercise,’” he says. “That’s the best time to exercise, because when you’re tired, after exercising, you gain that energy and that boost, and you feel better, and that makes you go back tomorrow and say, ‘Oh, I’ll do it again.’” Whether exercising with others or alone, it is always helpful to have a support person. People with memory issues may need their spouse, someone in the family or a friend to remind them to get moving. Others may want someone to join the activity. “You check in with each other, you look after each other. Some people may get competitive with their steps,” he says. Montayre’s wife – who is also a nurse and is completing her PhD at Hong Kong Polytechnic University – acts as his support person and cheerleader. She encourages him to exercise and they eat healthy meals together. “I don’t want to get diabetes. I don’t want to die young. I want to live longer, and I want to spend most of these years healthy,” Montayre says. “I’m researching healthy ageing, so I need to live healthy ageing.” Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.

How to age well? Specialist in healthy ageing gives his tips on adding life to your years

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Nominated for a global nursing prize for his research on ageing well, Hong Kong-based gerontologist Jed Montayre shares his expert advice

Nominated for a global nursing prize for his research on ageing well, Hong Kong-based gerontologist Jed Montayre shares his expert advice