Healthy ageing – Investing now for the future

Abstract

The rise in global life expectancy over the past century has resulted in a demographic shift leading to a significant rise in the elderly population. This gain in life expectancy however comes with a cost as ageing is often associated with an increasing burden of chronic disease conditions. In turn, this leads to greater healthcare and social care costs. The pursuit of healthy ageing is seen as the remedy, but the concept of healthy ageing is challenging to universally define. It is unclear whether populations in different regions of the world age in a similar fashion and whether they have the same healthcare needs. Health outcomes for the elderly are influenced by more than just healthcare but there is a problem of how comprehensive long-term care can be resourced. In addition, interventions targeting the elderly of today may only deliver marginal benefits for this population group. The way forward may be to get ahead of the curve and pursue anticipatory planning to deliver interventions with a long-term view to effecting health outcome change for the elderly of the future.