2024 Volume 73 Issue 3 Pages 201-206
Healthy Ageing has become an important keyword in the context of rapidly aging global population. This paper reviews World Health Organization’s (WHO) reports and papers on Healthy Ageing initiatives, and reports on indicators developed to date to measure the extent to which countries and regions are Healthy Ageing.
The WHO defines Healthy Ageing as “the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age.” It is collaborating with other United Nations (UN) agencies on similar initiatives. The report on the progress of the Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030) as of 2023, established by the UN, indicates that while many countries are formulating policies for aging, the lack of human and financial resources may be limiting the implementation of such policies. The report highlighted the possibility that differences in socioeconomic conditions and other factors are hindering the achievement of Healthy Ageing worldwide.
There are several indicators related to Healthy Ageing. A few indicators are easy to use even in low-income countries where human and financial resources are inadequate. Hopefully, these indicators could be used to assist countries set concrete goals for aging and improve the social environment for Healthy Ageing.
