Building a Chronic Diseases Prevention and Rehabilitation System Throughout the Life Span to Proactively Respond to the Challenges of Accelerated Population Aging
Erdan Dong, Xiaoying Zheng
Abstract
Population aging has emerged as one of the most pressing global demographic issues. Rapid population aging is being caused by a sharp drop in fertility rates over time, as well as a significant increase in life expectancy in the past decades. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the proportion of those aged 60 years and older in the world's population will almost double from approximately 12% in 2015 to 22% in 2050, with an absolute increase of 900 million to a total of 2 billion older adults (1). At the same time, the burden of global disease has changed greatly and the main diseases affecting human health have switched from acute and chronic infectious diseases to chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) (2). Such changing demographics and disease spectrum will profoundly affect all aspects of human society.