Gezond ouder worden essentiëel voor wereldwijde welvaart.*

MADRID, Apr 09 2002 - With the world's population rapidly ageing, it is in governments' economic interest to focus efforts on preventing heart disease, cancer and other diseases so growing old does not necessarily mean growing ill, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday. Ensuring access to affordable medicines for the elderly in the developing world is also more important now, a WHO official said. "A healthy population is a prerequisite for economic growth," WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland told reporters at the Second World Assembly on Ageing. "The predicted explosion of noncommunicable diseases--like heart disease, cancer or depression--in the ever increasing number of older persons globally will result in enormous human and social costs unless preventive action is taken now." The United Nations has gathered 5,000 delegates from 160 countries at the assembly--the first in 20 years. The aim is to agree on an action plan for addressing issues related to the ageing population. WHO has contributed a policy framework on active ageing, which argues that noncommunicable disease prevention, through tobacco control programmes, ensuring appropriate nutrition, reducing alcohol abuse and other means will keep people actively participating in society for longer, and reduce healthcare costs. In people over 65, health spending is seven times higher for the chronically disabled, Brundtland said. Although WHO's main focus is on prevention, Dr. Alexandre Kalache, coordinator of the agency's ageing and life course programme, acknowledged that another requirement is access to affordable medicines for the elderly, especially in developing countries. "We need both approaches," he told. "It is absolutely essential to get people to take responsibility for their own health and to get governments to take responsibility for the health of the population.

    Printen