"Successful aging" should become a global priority

The respected medical journal The Lancet has published a large series of articles on health and aging. These articles contain the message that if health systems do not develop effective strategies to solve the problems faced by the aging population of the world, the growing burden of chronic diseases will have a very strong impact on the quality of life of older people. As human life expectancy increases around the world, the increasing incidence of chronic diseases and the associated decline in quality of life are becoming a major public health problem on a global scale.

Life expectancy continues to increase all over the world. According to statistics, by 2020, the number of people aged 60 years and older for the first time in the history of mankind will exceed the number of children under the age of 5. It is expected that by 2050 there will be about 2 billion people in the world who have crossed the 60-year mark, then today this figure is 841 million. 80% of these people will live in low- and middle-income countries.

The growth of the aging stratum of the population, especially in high-income countries, is largely due to a decrease in mortality from diseases of the cardiovascular system (strokes and coronary heart disease). The main role in this belongs to simple low-cost strategies, such as reducing tobacco use and controlling high blood pressure, as well as increasing the coverage of the population and the effectiveness of various preventive measures.

At the same time, despite the fact that people live longer, their health is not necessarily better than the health of previous generations. Almost a quarter (23%) of the total global burden of mortality and morbidity falls on people over the age of 60, while most of this burden is due to long-term conditions caused by diseases such as cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, heart and musculoskeletal diseases (such as arthritis and osteoporosis), as well as mental and neurological disorders.

This long-term burden, caused by diseases and a reduced quality of life, falls on patients, their families, healthcare systems and the economy. According to experts' forecasts, this load will continue to increase. For example, according to recent estimates, the number of people with dementia, currently 44 million, will increase to 135 million by 2050.

To solve this problem, it is necessary to carry out deep and fundamental reforms of health systems, among other things, aimed at eliminating discrimination against the elderly, financial inaccessibility of medical contributions and poor access to necessary medical services. However, these changes must be carried out in such a way that they do not aggravate the inequality that in many cases causes poor health and functional limitations accompanying old age.

While some interventions should be universal in nature, it is very important to monitor the health status of an aging population at the state level in order to identify emerging trends and develop programs aimed at meeting emerging specific needs.

However, the responsibility for improving the quality of life of older people around the world should not lie solely with the health system. It is necessary to introduce approaches aimed at more effective prevention and treatment of chronic diseases by providing affordable medical services to all elderly people, taking into account their physical and social environment. Examples of this include strategies aimed at encouraging later retirement (for example, changing taxation principles that suppress the desire to work after reaching retirement age), focusing on cheap methods of prevention and early detection of diseases (for example, reducing salt intake and more active vaccination), more effective use of technological advances (for example, creation of mobile clinics for the population of agricultural regions) and training of healthcare staff in methods of simultaneous management of several chronic diseases.

According to Dr. Somnath Chatterji from the WHO Department of Medical Statistics and Information Technology, we should temporarily forget about the financial costs usually associated with aging and focus on the benefits that an older and at the same time healthier, happier and more productive aging population can bring to society as a whole..

A series of articles on health and aging issues has been published in The Lancet magazine.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to Medical News Today:
Health, well-being of aging population 'at risk' if interventions are overlooked.

10.11.2014