Good health adds life to years

Healthy ageing requires a significant paradigm shift in the way care is provided to the elderly population.

Ageing is a natural and inevitable process. For the past century, mankind has been adding years to life. More people now survive the challenges of childbirth and childhood to reach old age. This trend is not restricted to the resource-rich countries, but has become a global phenomenon including the countries of South-East Asia.
It has been estimated that around 142 million people or 8 percent of the population of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) South-East Asia Region are above the age of 60 years. This number will continue to increase. There is an urgent need to focus attention on the ageing population because of the increasing share of elderly persons in the total population.
Longer life is associated with chronic diseases and disabilities in old age. This affects the overall quality of life and poses a challenge for the families, communities and national governments. With nuclear families replacing the joint families and with large rural to urban migrations, often the old and the infirm are left at home. These changing patterns of society are now affecting the age-old balance of care of the old and very old persons at home.
On World Health Day, which is being observed today, WHO is highlighting ageing as a rapidly emerging priority that most countries have yet to realise and address adequately. The slogan of the day is — Good health adds life to years.
Improving health in the cycle of ageing will require saving lives, protecting health and removing disability and pain. This can be achieved through a combination of healthy lifestyle throughout the life-course, age-friendly environment and improved detection and prevention of disease which also includes appropriate research. Creating age-friendly environments and policies to engage the elderly population and utilising their vast potentials will result in dignified ageing, allowing elderly population to participate actively in family, community and political life, irrespective of their functional ability.
Healthy ageing requires a significant paradigm shift in the way care is provided to the elderly population. Age-friendly primary health care minimises the consequences of non-communicable or chronic diseases through early detection, prevention and quality of care, and provide long-term palliative care for those with advanced disease. Such interventions would need to be supplemented by affordable long-term care for those who can no longer retain their independence.
Building an age-friendly society requires actions in a variety of sectors other than health and include education, employment, labour, finance, social security, transportation, justice, housing and rural-urban development. This will involve policy-makers at the national governments, cities and municipalities; civil society groups and senior citizens forum; academic and research institutions; private sector enterprises; community leaders and youth groups.

The writer is Regional Director for South-East Asia Region of WHO.