PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

The Lancet: 'Ageing well' must be a global priority

2014-11-06
(Press-News.org) A major new Series on health and ageing, published in The Lancet, warns that unless health systems find effective strategies to address the problems faced by an ageing world population, the growing burden of chronic disease will greatly affect the quality of life of older people. As people across the world live longer, soaring levels of chronic illness and diminished wellbeing are poised to become a major global public health challenge.

Worldwide, life expectancy of older people continues to rise. By 2020, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 60 years and older will outnumber children younger than 5 years. By 2050, the world's population aged 60 years and older is expected to total 2 billion, up from 841 million today. 80% of these older people will be living in low-income and middle-income countries [Paper 1].

The increase in longevity, especially in high-income countries (HICs), has been largely due to the decline in deaths from cardiovascular disease (stroke and ischaemic heart disease), mainly because of simple, cost-effective strategies to reduce tobacco use and high blood pressure, and improved coverage and effectiveness of health interventions.

However, although people are living longer, they are not necessarily healthier than before— nearly a quarter (23%) of the overall global burden of death and illness is in people aged over 60, and much of this burden is attributable to long-term illness caused by diseases such as cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, heart disease, musculoskeletal diseases (such as arthritis and osteoporosis), and mental and neurological disorders [Paper 2].

This long-term burden of illness and diminished wellbeing affects patients, their families, health systems, and economies, and is forecast to accelerate. For example, latest estimates indicate that the number of people with dementia is expected to rise from 44 million now, to 135 million by 2050. "Deep and fundamental reforms of health and social care systems will be required,"* says Dr John Beard, Director of the Department of Ageing and Life Course at the World Health Organization (WHO), and co-leader of the Series with Dr Ties Boerma and Dr Somnath Chatterji, also from WHO. "But we must be careful that these reforms do not reinforce the inequities that drive much of the poor health and functional limitation we see in older age."* "While some interventions will be universally applicable, it will be important that countries monitor the health and functioning of their ageing populations to understand health trends and design programmes that meet the specific needs identified"*, adds Dr Ties Boerma, Director of the Department of Health Statistics and Informatics at WHO. "Cross-national surveys such as the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), the Gallup World Poll, and other longitudinal cohorts studies of ageing in Brazil, China, India, and South Korea, are beginning to redress the balance and provide the evidence for policy, but much more remains to be done."* [Paper 3 and Paper 4] However, the responsibility for improving quality of life for the world's older people goes far beyond the health sector, say the Series authors. Strategies are needed that better prevent and manage chronic conditions by extending affordable health care to all older adults and take into consideration the physical and social environment. Examples include changing policies to encourage older adults to remain part of the workforce for longer (e.g., removing tax disincentives to work past retirement age), emphasising low-cost disease prevention and early detection rather than treatment (eg, reducing salt intake and increasing uptake of vaccines), making better use of technology (eg, mobile clinics for rural populations), and training health-care staff in the management of multiple chronic conditions [Paper 5].

According to Dr Chatterji, also from the Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems at WHO, "Collectively, we need to look beyond the costs commonly associated with ageing to think about the benefits that an older, healthier, happier, and more productive older population can bring to society as a whole."*

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Multicenter study: Hospital medical errors reduced 30 percent with improved patient handoffs

2014-11-06
Multicenter patient-safety study reduces injuries from hospital medical errors by 30% with improved handoff communications I-PASS bundle improves safety, quality of care at nine medical centers BOSTON (Nov. 6, 2014) – Improvements in verbal and written communication between health care providers during patient handoffs can reduce injuries due to medical errors by 30 percent, according to a multicenter study led by researchers from Boston Children's Hospital. Reported Nov. 6 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), study results show that I-PASS—an ...

CT lung screening appears cost-effective

2014-11-06
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new statistical analysis of results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) concludes that performing low-dose computerized tomography screening can be cost-effective compared to doing no screening for lung cancer in aging smokers. "This provides evidence, given the assumptions we used, that it is cost-effective," said Ilana Gareen, assistant professor (research) of epidemiology in Brown University's School of Public Health and second author on the new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Four years ago, the ...

More evidence arthritis/pain relieving drugs may contribute to stroke death

2014-11-05
MINNEAPOLIS – Commonly prescribed, older drugs for arthritis and pain may increase the risk of death from stroke, according to a study published in the November 5, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The drugs examined in the study, called COX-2 inhibitors, include older drugs diclofenac, etodolac, nabumeton and meloxicam, as well as newer drugs called coxibs, including celecoxib ...

For leaders, looking intelligent is less important than looking healthy

For leaders, looking intelligent is less important than looking healthy
2014-11-05
People look for candidates with a healthy complexion when choosing a leader, but don't favor the most intelligent-looking candidates except for positions that require negotiation between groups or exploration of new markets. These results are published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Brian Spisak from the VU University Amsterdam and colleagues studied people's implicit preferences for traits of leaders, such as health, intelligence, and attractiveness, and how they look for information about these qualities in the physical appearance of others. ...

Increase in incidence of colorectal cancer in young adults, rate expected to rise

2014-11-05
While the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in people 50 years or older has declined, the incidence among people 20 to 49 years has increased, according to a report published online by JAMA Surgery. CRC is the third most common cancer among men and women, with an estimated 142,820 new cases and an estimated 50,830 deaths in the United States in 2013. From 1998 through 2006, the incidence of CRC declined 3 percent per year in men and 2.4 percent in women, a decrease largely attributed to an increase in screening, which is recommended for all adults over 50 years old. ...

Safest cosmetic surgery procedures

2014-11-05
First large prospective study to analyze rate of adverse events No risk of serious adverse events, less than 1 percent minor problems Fillers, neurotoxins, laser, energy device procedures exceedingly safe Minimally invasive cosmetic procedures can be mixed to give significant cosmetic boost CHICAGO --- Minimally invasive cosmetic procedures, including fillers, neurotoxins and laser and energy device procedures are exceedingly safe and have essentially no risk of serious adverse events, reports a new Northwestern Medicine® study that analyzed more than 20,000 procedures ...

Few adverse events found in noninvasive, minimally invasive cosmetic procedures

2014-11-05
A tiny fraction of adverse events occurred after dermatologists performed more than 20,000 noninvasive and minimally invasive cosmetic procedures, according to a study published online by JAMA Dermatology. Cosmetic dermatology is a well-developed field and data suggest the procedures are associated with a low rate of adverse events, according to background information in the study. Researcher Murad Alam, M.D., M.S.C.I., of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, Chicago, and co-authors characterized the incidence of adverse events associated with ...

Analyzing heat waves -- new index allows predicting their magnitude

2014-11-05
JRC scientists have developed a new index to measure the magnitude of heat waves, in cooperation with colleagues from five research organisations. According to the index projections, under the worst climate scenario of temperature rise nearing 4.8⁰C, extreme heat waves will become the norm by the end of the century. Heat waves like the one that hit Russia in summer 2010, the strongest on record in recent decades, will occur as often as every two years in southern Europe, North and South America, Africa and Indonesia. The Heat Wave Magnitude Index is the first to ...

Young patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer anticipated to nearly double by 2030

2014-11-05
November 5, 2014 – In the next 15 years, more than one in 10 colon cancers and nearly one in four rectal cancers will be diagnosed in patients younger than the traditional screening age, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. This growing public health problem is underscored by data trends among 20- to 34-year-olds in the U.S., among whom the incidence of colon and rectal cancer (CRC) is expected to increase by 90% and 124.2%, respectively, by 2030. Published in the current issue of JAMA Surgery, the findings build on prior ...

The female nose always knows: Do women have more olfactory neurons?

The female nose always knows: Do women have more olfactory neurons?
2014-11-05
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -Individuals show great diversity in their ability to identify scents and odors. More importantly, males and females greatly differ in their perceptual evaluation of odors, with women outperforming men on many kinds of smell tests. Sex differences in olfactory detection may play a role in differentiated social behaviors and may be connected to one's perception of smell, which is naturally linked to associated experiences and emotions. Thus, women's olfactory superiority has been suggested to be cognitive or emotional, rather than perceptual. ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

Targeting FGFR2 may prevent or delay some KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancers

[Press-News.org] The Lancet: 'Ageing well' must be a global priority