Through Zurich Without Barriers

Zurich is a city of bumpy, cobbled streets that can be especially tricky for those who struggle with mobility. For people navigating life in a wheelchair or facing other mobility challenges, curbs become literal stumbling blocks, while steps and intersections can feel like insurmountable hurdles. “Many older people want and need to be mobile. They would love to enjoy a stroll through the city,” says Christina Röcke. “Knowing where there are benches for a quick rest, or which route to take to avoid waiting at traffic lights, would make things much more manageable for them.”

Christina Röcke is a psychologist and co-director of the UZH Healthy Longevity Center (HLC). The center also proudly collaborates with the ZuReach research project, led by the engineer and geoinformation specialist, Hoda Allahbakhshi. ZuReach aims to map locations in the Zurich city center where accessibility is limited, and then compile this information into a database, which will form the basis of a digital navigation tool designed to help people with mobility challenges navigate Zurich with greater ease. Although there are already numerous digital applications that facilitate route planning and orientation, until now there hasn’t been a tool that has mobility as its central focus.

ZuReach embodies many of the principles that define the philosophy behind the Healthy Longevity Center’s research and innovation. For example, the project relies on citizen science. This means that those dealing with mobility issues on a daily basis are involved in data collection and provide information on obstacles that affect accessibility in central Zurich. This ensures that future users of the emerging navigation tool are involved in its development from the start, guaranteeing that the project addresses exactly the everyday challenges it aims to solve. To achieve this, researchers at the HLC also collaborate with external partners, such as the City of Zurich. In addition, ZuReach leverages digital technology as a vehicle for research and problem-solving.

Research on the topic of aging at UZH represents a new, data-driven, interdisciplinary approach, and has embraced digitalization since the early stages. “Even before the first smartphones hit the market in 2008, we recognized the research potential of this technology,” says Mike Martin, who led the University Research Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging from 2013 to 2024, and is now director of the UZH Healthy Longevity Center. Digital devices like smartphones make it possible to study people’s daily lives individually and in detail, which is laying the groundwork for a new, more holistic approach to healthy aging. “The secret to healthy longevity isn’t found in laboratories, it’s found primarily in the real world,” says Martin. It’s precisely this everyday reality that research at UZH is analyzing.

To explore the full spectrum of older people’s daily lives, an interdisciplinary team of scientists from the fields of psychology, computer science and geography has developed its own measurement tools, such as the wearable uTrail sensor. This small, versatile device, which can be attached to a belt, records movement, physical activity, snippets of conversation, and measures social contact. uTrail provides important information for research on aging and is a key component of the MOASIS study, which has been ongoing since 2013 and is led by psychologist Christina Röcke and geographer Robert Weibel.

The researchers are using the sensor to study the lives of over 150 subjects aged 65 to 90 years. “With the information we gather using the sensor, we can paint a relatively accurate picture of participants’ daily lives,” says Röcke. Among other things, the study highlights the importance of social contact and mobility for mental and physical health, as well as quality of life in old age. “Everyday activities directly and positively impact memory and well-being,” says the psychologist. What’s more, MOASIS paints a nuanced, vibrant, and remarkably colorful picture of how everyday life is experienced in old age. Christina Röcke emphasizes that many older people remain active and have diverse interests, even despite their health limitations.

“Today, old age is often equated with illness,” says Mike Martin. “We actually have a sickness system, not a health system.” In other words, both science and society tend to focus solely on the deficits of old age, rather than considering its challenges and its potential as a whole. And there is certainly potential: research projects at the Healthy Longevity Center show that older people are much more capable than is often thought.

“Nowadays we often hear that although we might be living longer, we’re spending more and more years being sick,” says Martin. However, this doesn’t mean we simply spend this time being idle, contributing nothing except costs that burden the healthcare system. In many cases, the type of illnesses people have in old age can be well managed. “This is also why older people with chronic illnesses can still run businesses, work, and volunteer,” says the gerontopsychologist. Remaining active in old age contributes to individual well-being, but it’s also good for society. Martin notes that the value generated by people over 65 in Switzerland is rarely quantified, but in fact it totals around 30 billion francs annually.

However, a prerequisite for an active life in old age is that people have the opportunity to make the most of the years after retirement. There are many obstacles that make it difficult to lead an exciting, mobile life in old age. “For example, there are laws that regulate the quality, content and funding of education and training – but only up to the age of 65,” says Mike Martin. “If we created equal structural conditions for all age groups, older people wouldn’t have to justify their interest in education.”

Recognizing and removing such obstacles, and creating new opportunities for older people to participate in society, is one of the goals of the research conducted at the Healthy Longevity Center. These efforts are reflected in the ZuReach mobility project, the WiseLearn digital learning platform for people over 65, and a newly developed care concept for people with dementia, all of which originated at the HLC.

Researchers at UZH are developing a new, more nuanced understanding of aging through their projects, and redefining the popular concept of “healthy longevity”, currently a hot topic worldwide. Business is booming for anti-aging treatments and clinics promising supposedly eternal youth, while influencers like American entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, who is attempting to prolong his life through a strict regimen of diet and training, are creating a buzz on social media. Christina Röcke states, “Behind the international hype around longevity is the goal of combating aging through medicine and biology. It is based on a notion of health that fixates on youth and suppresses our vulnerability.”

Healthy longevity researchers at UZH are diametrically opposed to this: they see health and quality of life not as a simple absence of sickness, but as an opportunity for people to pursue what is meaningful and important to them, despite any health limitations they may experience. The World Health Organization (WHO) also emphasizes this in its new model of healthy aging, to which UZH psychologist Martin contributed. It is therefore important to understand health both in terms of the individual and in context. “A person is more than just their symptoms,” says Mike Martin. “Instead of classifying diseases according to a diagnosis, we should look at how they manifest individually. In technical terms, this is known as phenotyping.” For example, it is certainly possible for a person with dementia to live at home – provided their situation allows it. Recognizing this allows tailored solutions that improve quality of life to be sought.

Healthy longevity is one of the UZH Innovation Hub’s four strategic innovation initiatives – research and innovation areas that are particularly focused on the future and receive dedicated support. The UZH Healthy Longevity Center aims to drive innovations that transform the entire system, says Mike Martin. He believes academic research has the power to shape developments, acting as a scientific think tank for healthy longevity.

“We should define what the major societal issues and problems are, then work towards solving them,” says Martin. University research can therefore inspire business and society – by encouraging start-ups to pursue specific projects, for example. To pave the way for such projects, the Healthy Longevity Center must maintain a strong network of partners in academia, the public and business.

The HLC’s greatest assets for innovation are its interdisciplinary collaborations, which allow for a nuanced approach to complex topics like healthy longevity, and the vast amounts of data that aging researchers have gathered so far, for example as part of the MOASIS project. They lay the foundations for new scientific insights and concrete solutions to problems, which projects like ZuReach are working on.

As part of a new project, HLC researchers are collaborating with UZH computer scientists to expand the existing data space with inputs from psychology, medicine, biology and historical research, and to standardize it for improved usability. In the future, with the help of this stored knowledge, individual digital advisory systems could be developed to assist older people, support them in everyday situations, and thereby promote their well-being. “We should continue working on this kind of socially responsible technology,” says Mike Martin. “These are the innovations that advance society.” For example, allowing people to stroll through Zurich without encountering any obstacles.