Press Briefing by the World Health Organization 

By : United Nations
April 9, 2002

During a press briefing at the Second World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid this afternoon, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland briefed correspondents on the agency's programme to ensure active and healthy ageing during the demographic revolution that will characterize the coming decades. Dr. Brundtland said that since populations were ageing rapidly and life expectancy had increased dramatically over the last century, it was more important than ever to ensure that aged people remained healthy and productive.

The Second World Assembly -- being held through Friday 12 April -- is providing a cooperative forum for governments and societies to develop a plan of action to address the social, cultural, economic and demographic realities of older persons in the new century. Dr. Brundtland said in order to ensure an active and healthy ageing, countries must start early to create environments that promoted health. By example she said, smoking and alcohol abuse often begin during teenage years, so promoting healthy lifestyles among persons between 12 and 22 would go a long way to ensure long and productive adulthood and older age.

She went on to say that WHO's active ageing plan looked ahead to the reality that by 2025 there would be 1.2 billion people in the world over the age of 60. By 2050, that number was expected to reach 2 billion. Most striking was that 80 per cent of those older people would be living in developing countries. So as international actors were gathered in Europe, it was necessary to realize that the challenges posed by rapidly ageing populations were even greater in the developing world. There was a definite need for countries represented at the Assembly to identify ways to adapt their national health policies to reflect new realities.

Dr. Brundtland was joined at the briefing by Dr. Alexandre Kalache, Coordinator of WHO's Ageing and Life Course programme. He stressed that while 2050 might seem far away, it was important to remember that the persons who could benefit from early initiatives aimed at ensuring healthy ageing were already over 18 years old. There was a need to place emphasis on integrating the WHO policy framework with programmes to support people to age well so they could be a resource for their families, communities and the economy.

Informing correspondents that he was from Brazil, Dr. Kalache said that during his lifetime, the most enduring change had been increasing life expectancy. When he was born, life expectancy for his generation had been 43 years old. It was now 70 years old. There had also been a significant decline in fertility rates -- Brazil's birth rate, once six children per family, was now about 2.1. That and similar conditions in other developing countries had contributed to unprecedented rapid ageing throughout the developing world.

Dr. Kalache pointed to the irony that where developing countries got rich before they got old, the developing world was growing old in poverty. Responding adequately to that challenge was particularly important to the health sector. "After all", he said, "ageing in poor health was an empty price to pay". The time for action was now.

Asked what solutions or ideas WHO was putting forward to help developing countries address the issue of ageing, Dr. Brundtland said an important point was health promotion and prevention of illness. That meant, for example, that whether rich or poor, elderly persons avoid adopting sedentary lifestyles. In that regard, developing countries could learn from what had been happening in industrialized countries during the last 30 or 40 years. It was not just a question of finding more resources, the priority need was to emphasize active lifestyles so that better health could be promoted in broader segments of the population.

"We want to promote better health and increase awareness so that developing countries can avoid the problems which could add to their economic burdens -- heart disease, hypertension and obesity, that have occurred in the North", she said. At present, there was no question that in the South there was a lack of nutrition and resources. The challenge was great, and that was why WHO focused on health as an integral component of development.

When asked about cases in European countries where persons often left their home countries to take advantage of health treatment elsewhere, Dr. Brundtland said indeed the notion of the rights of citizens being able to move between States and having the ability to access their home rights was being discussed. It was a complex issue and would take a long time to standardize and formalize social security networks to provide equal health services for all. The world was very far from a global plan in that regard because the gap was so wide between the "haves" and the "have nots", particularly regarding health services. "So we ask the developed countries to help the developing countries, in that regard", she said.