24 Aug Ageing well and healthier.
Across the world, people are living longer. A baby girl born in the UK today can expect to live to the age of 83; for a boy, it is 79. Globally, the number of people living today aged 60 and over has doubled since 1980, and by 2050 we can expect to see the number of people aged 80 or more quadruple to 395 million. This increase in the number of people living to a ripe old age can be viewed as a public health success story. Yet although populations are living longer, many of these additional years are spent in ill health. Over four million (or 40 per cent) of people in the UK over the age of 65 have a limiting long-term health condition, such as diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disease, cancer, arthritis and dementia. Many of these conditions are linked to lifestyle and modifiable behaviours and declines in mortality have not...