Poorer countries must adapt to meet health needs of elderly, report says

Health systems, particularly in poorer countries, need to adapt to meet the chronic care needs of older people as the shift to ageing populations gathers pace in low- and middle-income countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.

In a briefing paper to mark World Health Day on Saturday, the WHO points out that developing countries will have less time than wealthy nations to adapt to the challenges of an ageing population – generally defined as people over 60.

While it took more than 100 years for the share of France's population aged 65 or older to increase from 7% to 14%, countries such as Brazil, China and Thailand will experience the same demographic shift in just over 20 years. "This gives them much less time to put in place the infrastructure to address the needs of this older population," said the WHO.

Fonte: The Guardian, 04/04/2012

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