This paper identifies key challenges in health care and long-term care as populations age and provides examples of how countries are responding to them. The paper focuses on developing countries that are aging fast, where anticipation and action are especially important. The paper highlights the need for a holistic strategy that focuses on strengthening health care and long-term care systems and achieving universal care coverage, moving from a disease-centered approach to a person-centered one. But such a strategy should not focus exclusively on the older population. To solve the challenges brought by population aging, younger populations should not be forgotten. How people age is, to a large extent, determined by their health earlier in life and the choices they made when young. The range of policies should therefore promote healthy lifestyles, like physical activity and healthy eating, throughout the entire life course. A healthy aging agenda contributes to containing the costs associated with aging populations.
Authors
- Citation
- “ Aranco Araújo, Natalia ; Garcia, Gisela M. . 2024 . Health and Long-Term Care Needs in a Context of Rapid Population Aging . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42256 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Discussion Papers
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1596/42256
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34396534
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34396534
- Pages
- 86
- Published in
- United States of America
- Report
- 193757
- Rights
- CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/igo
- UNIT
- Health Nutrition &Population LCR (HLCHN)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42256
- date disclosure
- 2024-10-16
- region geographical
- World
Files
Table of Contents
- 2024.08.01. Health and Long Term Care_Final review-copyeditedGiselaNatalia-clean092624.pdf -1
- Overview 9
- 1. Introduction 10
- 2. Main Trends in Longevity 11
- 3. Aging, Health, and the Challenges for Health Care Systems 17
- Changing patterns of disease: the increase in chronic conditions and the importance of multimorbidity 17
- The epidemiological transition in developing countries 20
- Challenges for health care systems and countries’ responses 22
- Improving coverage and effective access 25
- Adapting health care systems to an older population and a new epidemiological profile without losing focus on quality 27
- Financial pressures and the challenge of keeping costs contained 41
- 4. Increasing Risk of Functional Dependency and Challenges for Long-Term Care Systems 44
- Rising long-term care needs 44
- Country responses in long-term care 48
- Actions to promote social and health care integration 59
- 5. Final Remarks and Key Policy Considerations 62
- References 66
- Blank Page 2
