This document summarizes key information about aging populations globally and the health challenges associated with an aging population. It notes that the global population over age 60 will nearly double between 2015 and 2050. By 2050, 80% of older people will live in low- and middle-income countries. It also discusses the physical, mental, and social challenges that often accompany aging, such as hearing loss, dementia, isolation, and abuse. The document emphasizes that aging is diverse and that environmental and personal factors can influence health inequities and outcomes for older adults.

1. Ravindra Lal Mul
Student(013)
M.Sc. In Public Health and Disaster Engineering
School of Enginering
Pokhara University
July 2019 Lekhnath, Kaski

2. “With a life time of hard work, senior citizens of
today deserve a dignified and care for old age, not
as a charity from the younger generation but as
the rights of their own.”
“As elders are the living history of a society, it is
very important to utilize their knowledge, skills
and experience for socio-economic development.”

3.  Globally, the population is ageing rapidly.
Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of
the world’s population over 60 years will
nearly double, from 12% to 22%.
 By 2020, the number of people aged 60
years and older will outnumber children
younger than 5 years.
 In 2050, 80% of older people will be living
in low- and middle-income countries.

4.  The pace of population ageing is much
faster than in the past.
 All countries face major challenges to
ensure that their health and social systems
are ready to make the most of this
demographic shift.
 Approximately 15% of adults aged 60 and
over suffer from a mental disorder.

5. “At the biological level, ageing results from the impact of
the accumulation of a wide variety of molecular and cellular
damage over time. This leads to a gradual decrease in
physical and mental capacity, a growing risk of disease, and
ultimately, death.”
But these changes are neither linear nor consistent, and
they are only loosely associated with a person’s age in
years.
While some 70 year-olds enjoy extremely good health and
functioning, other 70 year-olds are frail and require
significant help from others.

6. Physical
 Hearing loss
 Cataracts (clouding of the lens in the eye)
 Back and neck pain
 Blood pressure (Hypertension)
 Osteoarthritis (bones wears down over time)
 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
 Diabetes

7. Mental
 Depression
 Dementia (decline in mental ability severe enough
to interfere with daily life. Memory loss is an
example. Alzheimer's is the most common type
of dementia
Social
 Isolation
 Left behind
 Abuse

8.  Although some of the variations in older people’s
health are genetic, much is due to people’s
physical and social environments – including
their homes, neighborhoods, and communities, as
well as their personal characteristics – such as their
sex, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
 Environments - eating a balanced diet, engaging in
regular physical activity, and refraining from
tobacco use all contribute to reducing the risk of
non-communicable diseases and improving
physical and mental capacity.

9.  Environments - eating a balanced diet, engaging in
regular physical activity, and refraining from
tobacco use all contribute to reducing the risk of
non-communicable diseases and improving
physical and mental capacity.
 Behaviours -Strength training to maintain muscle
mass and good nutrition can both help to preserve
cognitive function, delay care dependency, and
reverse frailty.
 Supportive environments -The availability of safe
and accessible public buildings and transport, and
environments that are easy to walk around.

10. Diversity in older age
Health inequities
Outdated and ageist stereotypes
A rapidly changing world

11.  Over 20% of adults aged 60 and over suffer from a mental or
neurological disorder (excluding headache disorders) and
 6.6% of all disability (disability adjusted life years-DALYs)
among people over 60 years is attributed to mental and
neurological disorders.
 These disorders in older people account for 17.4% of Years Lived
with Disability (YLDs).
 The most common mental and neurological disorders in this age
group are dementia and depression, which affect
approximately 5% and 7% of the world’s older population,
respectively.
 Anxiety disorders affect 3.8% of the older population,
substance use problems affect almost 1% and around a quarter
of deaths from self-harm are among people aged 60 or above.
 Substance abuse problems among older people are often
overlooked or misdiagnosed.

12.  Study conducted by Institute of medicine stated the prevalence of depression
according to Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is 53.2% which includes 34.2% of mild
and 19% of severe depression.
 An elderly patient suffering from depression often has a combination of
psychological, physical and social needs.
 In relation to intestinal parasites the prevalence found to be 41.7%, out of which
30.6% had multiple parasitism. Males (43.8%) had slightly infection rate than females
(40.4%).
 Nutritionally inadequate diets -chronic and acute diseases and hasten the
development of degenerative diseases associated with aging.
 31% of elderly people were malnourished, and a further 51% were at risk of
malnutrition.
 elderly males (59%) had of physical pain (joints, knee, back, stomach, etc.)
 respiratory problem (39%), eye problem (30%), gastric (29%), blood pressure and
teeth problem (22% each), and dementia/Alzheimer (16%).

13. Thank You