Towards a healthy ageing

Worldwide, life expectancy of older people continues to rise. By 2050, the world’s population aged 60 years and older is expected to total 2 billion, up from 841 million today. Eighty per cent of these older people will be living in low-income and middle-income countries like Bangladesh.

This demographic change has several implications for public health. Good health is key if older people are to remain independent and to play a part in family and community life. Life-long health promotion and disease prevention activities can prevent or delay the onset of noncommunicable and chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, the major cause of death in older people.

A major new series on health and ageing, published in The Lancet, warns that unless health systems find effective strategies to address the problems faced by an ageing world population, the growing burden of chronic disease will greatly affect the quality of life of older people. As people across the world live longer, soaring levels of chronic illness and diminished wellbeing are poised to become a major global public health challenge.

Although people are living longer, they are not necessarily healthier than before — nearly a quarter (23%) of the overall global burden of death and illness is in people aged over 60, and much of this burden is attributable to long-term illness caused by diseases such as cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, heart disease, musculoskeletal diseases (such as arthritis and osteoporosis), and mental and neurological disorders.

This long-term burden of illness and diminished wellbeing affects patients, their families, health systems, and economies, and is forecast to accelerate. For example, latest estimates indicate that the number of people with dementia is expected to rise from 44 million now, to 135 million by 2050.

Apart from the universally applicable interventions, experts urge countries to monitor the health and functioning of their ageing populations to understand health trends and design programmes that meet the specific needs identified.

Strategies are needed that better prevent and manage chronic conditions by extending affordable health care to all older adults and take into consideration the physical and social environment. Examples include changing policies to encourage older adults to remain part of the workforce for longer (e.g., removing tax disincentives to work past retirement age), emphasising low-cost disease prevention and early detection rather than treatment (e.g., reducing salt intake and increasing uptake of vaccines), making better use of technology (e.g., mobile clinics for rural populations), and training health-care staff in the management of multiple chronic conditions.

The world's growing population of older people plays a critical role through volunteering, transmitting experience and knowledge, helping their families with caring responsibilities and increasing their participation in the paid labour force. Now, we have to play our role so that every older can live a healthier, happier, and more productive life.

Source: World Health Organisation