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More than 50 million Americans are currently 65 and older, with current projections estimating that there will be nearly 100 million by 2060. While there is great variability among the older population, many older adults will be disproportionately affected by negative health and well-being consequences associated with chronic diseases, increased fall risk, and physical inactivity. The implementation and dissemination of evidence-based programs can play a major role in the prevention and management of these conditions, thus improving quality of life for the growing number of older adults worldwide. These goals are consistent with the World Health Organization Declaration of the Decade of Healthy Ageing. Research and practice around evidence-based programs for chronic illness management and related conditions in older adults have spearheaded many new opportunities to promote healthy aging as well as revealing challenges in getting effective programs and policies implemented and widely disseminated. For example, most evidence-based programs are not readily scalable or sustainable. Reasons for this may include delay in implementing programs as a result of contextual barriers or the lack of infrastructure for dissemination. These challenges emphasize the need for strategies to ensure the successful implementation and dissemination of evidence-based programs for older adults. Dissemination and implementation science (DIS) provides a broad framework to design interventions and identify implementation strategies that work in diverse real-world clinical and community settings to meet the need of diverse populations. Advancements in research and practice require a basic understanding of (a) principles of DIS; (b) relevant theories, frameworks, and conceptual models; (c) awareness of national and international case examples of chronic disease, falls, and physical activity initiatives for better management of health and functioning in older adults; and (d) shared lessons from research and practice. This lens helps underscore the importance of the evidence-based program movement to the aging services network.

Research in diverse fields has examined how social and gender norms, broadly defined as informal rules of acceptable behavior in a given group or society, may influence sexual and reproductive health outcomes. One set of conceptual and empirical approaches has focused on perceptions of how commonly others perform a behavior and the extent to which others support or approve of the behavior. Another set of approaches has focused on how social norms emerge from structures of gender and power that characterize the social institutions within which individuals are embedded. Interventions intended to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes by shifting social and gender norms have been applied across a wide range of populations and settings and to a diverse set of behaviors, including female genital mutilation/cutting, the use of modern contraceptive methods, and behavioral risk reduction for HIV. Norms-based intervention strategies have been implemented at multiple socioecological levels and have taken a variety of forms, including leveraging the influence of prominent individuals, using community activities or mass media to shift attitudes, and introducing legislation or policies that facilitate the changing of social norms. Recent advances in social and gender norms scholarship include the integration of previously disparate conceptual and empirical approaches into a unified multilevel framework. Although challenges remain in measuring social and gender norms and studying their impacts on sexual and reproductive health-related behaviors across cultures, the research will continue to shape policies and programs that impact sexual and reproductive health globally.