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 Why
population aging matters: A global perspective
 U.S.
officials and international experts came together March 15 at the
U.S. State Department to discuss and begin to plan for a situation
that until now has not received much attention from governments
around the world the aging of the world's populations.
For the
first time in history, people 65 years old and older soon will
outnumber children under age 5, according to Why Population Aging
Matters: A Global Perspective, a report produced jointly by the
State Department and the National Institute on Aging, an agency
within the National Institutes of Health.
As people
everywhere age, the prevalence of chronic disease increases,
straining insurance, pensions and other social support systems.
Governments in developed and developing nations are starting to
realize that global aging can affect economic growth, labor forces,
trade migration, international relations and national security.
INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUE
To promote
greater international dialogue on these challenges, the State
Department hosted a Summit on Global Aging for diplomats and experts
on aging, health and economic issues.
"One of
the key goals of this summit," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
told attendees, "is to begin a conversation that will stimulate
dialogue, encourage collaboration, and promote national and
international research that will help to provide the answers that we
need."
The United
States, she added, "is eager to work shoulder to shoulder with our
international partners to address the concerns of our aging
citizens."
In 2006,
nearly 500 million people worldwide were 65 or older. By 2030,
according to the report, the total is projected to increase to 1
billion one in every eight people on the planet. The fastest
increases in those 65 and older are occurring in developing
countries, which will see a jump in that population of 140 percent
by 2030.
"Never
before has the State Department hosted such an event on global
aging," said Paula Dobriansky, under secretary of state for
democracy and global affairs. "We see this as an important
discussion in the context of foreign policy as the aging of
populations around the world will affect both our own society and
how we interact with other nations."
Aging
populations demonstrate the triumph of public health, medical
advances and economic development over disease and injury, but they
also create a need to modify policies and practices to fit the new
demographic reality.
RESPONSE
TO GLOBAL AGING
In the
United States, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
responds to global aging through the work of the National Institute
on Aging (NIA) in Maryland.
"NIA is a
world leader in aging research and we're proud of it and committed
to it," said HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt. "Surveys designed by NIA
track the health and retirement of Americans over a lengthy period
of time, and they are used as models for similar surveys around the
world. NIA also funds cross-national research and hosts foreign
scholars and visiting fellows. It's important that we continue to
support this kind of cross-national research. It's good for all of
us."
NIA
co-funds more than 24 cross-national aging-related datasets and
single-country studies of aging. These include the International
Database on Aging, involving 227 countries; the International
Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their
Health, involving 19 developing nations; the Human Mortality
Database, involving 28 countries, the World Health Organization
(WHO) Study on Global Aging and Adult Health; and studies with
Mexico, China, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Korea.
With WHO,
NIA supports the 2006 Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors
Initiative, which looks at the combined toll of death and disability
in populations and makes it possible to compare patterns among
populations, to help researchers understand the burden on people,
countries and economies.
AGING AND
HEALTH
In 10
years to 15 years, according to the Global Burden of Disease
project, the loss of health and life in every region of the world,
including Africa, will be greater from the noncommunicable or
chronic diseases of aging like heart disease, cancer and diabetes
than from infectious diseases like AIDS or parasitic diseases like
malaria.
But there
is a difference between developed and developing countries, said
Julio Frenk, former minister of health for Mexico. Developed
countries, with more advanced health care systems, tend to "move
from a predominance of communicable, infectious diseases that mostly
affect children, to a predominance of noncommunicable diseases" that
affect mainly adults.
But most
developing countries often have to deal with both kinds of disease
at the same time a "double burden of disease" - of common
infections, maternal deaths and malnutrition, along with
noncommunicable diseases and their associated risk factors.
This is
adding layers of complexity to the health picture around the world,
Frenk said, and adding to the increasing pressure on health care
systems, especially in developing nations.
The full
text of Why Population Aging Matters: A Global Perspective is
available on the State Department Web site.
More
information about the National Institute on Aging is available at
the NIH Web site.
(USINFO is
produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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