Key facts
- All countries face major problems in ensuring that their health and social systems are prepared to benefit from this demographic shift.
- Between 2015 and 2050, the global population over the age of 60 will nearly double from 12% to 22%.
- The pace of population aging is faster than ever.
- In 2020, the number of people aged 60 and over exceeded the number of children under 5 years of age.
- Between 2020 and 2030, the global population over the age of 60 will increase by 34%.
Overview
People in the world today live longer than ever before. Most individuals can now, for the first time in history, expect to live to the age of sixty or more. All countries are witnessing growth in the number of older people and the proportion they represent in the composition of the population.
By 2030, one-sixth of the world's population will be 60 years or older. Currently, the population aged 60 years and over will rise from 1 billion in 2020 to 1.4 billion. By 2050, the global population aged 60 years and over will double (2.1 billion people). The number of people aged 80 years and over is expected to triple between 2020 and 2050, reaching 426 million people.
Although this shift in the distribution of population composition, characterized by an increasing number of older people - or what is known as population aging - began in high-income countries (in Japan, for example, people over the age of 60 represent 30% of the population), low-income countries have become Middle-income people are now witnessing the bulk of this transformation. By 2050, low- and middle-income countries will be home to two-thirds of the world's population aged 60 and over.
Explaining the concept of aging (aging)
From a biological perspective, aging occurs as a result of the accumulation of a wide range of damage in molecules and cells over time. This leads to a gradual decline in physical and mental abilities, and an increased risk of disease and ultimately death. These changes are neither linear nor consistent, and are almost not related to a person's age in years. The observed variation in aging is not random. In addition to biological changes, aging is often associated with other life events such as retirement, moving to more suitable housing, and the death of friends and partners.
Common health problems associated with aging
Common problems with aging include hearing loss, cataracts and refractive errors, back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, depression, and dementia. As people age, they are more likely to experience several health problems at once.
Aging is also characterized by the emergence of many complex health conditions, commonly called aging syndromes. They often occur as a result of multiple underlying factors and include asthenia, urinary incontinence, falls, delirium and pressure ulcers.
Factors that affect aging well
Living a long life provides opportunities for older people and their families, but also for entire societies. Additional years provide the opportunity to undertake new activities such as continuing education, starting a new career, or satisfying a long-neglected passion. Older people also contribute to their families and communities in many ways. However, the extent of these opportunities and contributions depends largely on one factor: health.
Evidence suggests that the proportion of people living well has generally remained stable, meaning that those who live are spending additional years in poorer health. If individuals can live these additional years of life healthy and in a supportive environment, their ability to do the things they enjoy will not be much different from the ability of a younger person. If older people spend most of these additional years suffering from a decline in their physical and mental abilities, the consequences for them and for society will be more severe.
Although some differences in the health of older adults are genetic, most are attributable to individuals' physical and social environments – including their homes, neighborhoods, and communities, as well as their personal characteristics – such as their gender, race, or socioeconomic status. The environments in which individuals live as children - or even as embryos - along with their personality traits, have a long-term impact on how they age.
Physical and social environments can influence health directly or through barriers or incentives that influence health opportunities, decisions, and behavior. Maintaining healthy behaviors throughout life, especially eating a balanced diet, maintaining physical activity, and abstaining from tobacco use, all contribute to reducing the risk of noncommunicable diseases, improving physical and mental capacity, and delaying dependence on care.
Supportive physical and social environments enable individuals to do what they find important to them, despite their declining abilities. Examples of supportive environments include public buildings, safe and accessible transportation, and places that are easy to get around. In developing a public health response to aging, it is important to consider not only individual and environmental approaches that mitigate age-related losses, but also approaches that may promote recovery, adaptation and psychosocial development.
Challenges in responding to an aging population
There are no uniform specifications for the elderly. Some 80-year-olds have physical and mental abilities similar to those of many 30-year-olds. In contrast, other people suffer from a significant decline in abilities at much younger ages. A comprehensive public health response must address this wide diversity of older people and their needs.
This observed variation in aging is not random. It is due in large part to the physical and social environment of individuals and the impact of this environment on their health opportunities and behavior. The relationship we have with our environment is influenced by personal characteristics such as the family we are born into, our gender and our race, leading to health disparities.
It is often assumed that older people are weak or that they are dependent and a burden on society. Public health professionals, and society as a whole, need to address these and other negative attitudes about aging, which can lead to discrimination and affect the way policies are made and opportunities for older people to lead healthy lives in old age. .
Globalization, technological developments (eg in transport and communications), urbanisation, migration and changing gender norms affect the lives of older people in direct and indirect ways. The public health response must recognize these current and expected trends and develop policies accordingly.