Editorial: The Public Health Needs for an Ageing Society

Abstract

Population ageing is the sought-for outcome of improved public health, education and medical care over the last century. Worldwide, life expectancy is increasing. The health with which people age, given longer lives, has become a critically important determinant of population health and of development agendas as well as the economic well-being of nations. This issue of Public Health Reviews is devoted to the description and the analysis of how increased life expectancy and ageing affect population needs and compel us to modify public health science and leadership. It lays out the transitions in population science and the multilevel public health and policy agenda for the future necessary to support longer lives that are healthy and engaged. The public health consequences of longevity and population ageing do not come as a surprise. The emergence of ageing as a public health issue dates back to the mid-20 century. The demographic transition (as originally expressed in the 1920’s by Warren Thompson) predicted an increase in the proportion of aged people in the post-transitional period, i.e., as a result of the combination of low mortality and low birth rate. The link between the demographic transition and population health was further characterized by Omran in the 1970’s. The so-called epidemiologic transition characterizes the secular change between two epidemiological stages, i.e., from high fertility and a high, unstable frequency of rapidly lethal infectious diseases to a new situation of low fertility and health issues dominated by slowly progressing chronic and degenerative diseases. Cardiometabolic disease, cancer, neuropsychiatric diseases and musculo-skeletal conditions are now predominant (or will be soon) in most parts of the world. Several current observations were, however, unexpected. One is the ever-increasing longevity in most high income countries. Mortality is low,