BRITAIN: Coping with Ageing Society Poses Global Challenge

LONDON (Reuters), April 26, 2006: In a few years the number of 55 to 65 year-olds will exceed the number of 15 to 24 year-olds. The senior bulge will pose global challenges in Western Europe. How to stay healthy late in life, how to stay independent are at the forefront of people's preoccupations. Seniors want to stay independent as long as possible and migrate to coastal areas. A key to staying independent and healthy late in life is integration. Research shows that contributing to one's environment, being socially integrated is a key to keeping fit. Integrating older people will be one of tomorrow's greater challenges. In the next four year the number of 55 to 64-year-olds in Europe is expected to exceed the 15 to 24 age-group. Two challenges will face the older generation in the near future, how to stay healthy in the old age and tackling ageist attitudes. For seniors, staying healthy means staying independent and preferably somewhere nice, near the coast for example. According to Emily Grundy, a gerontologist at a Centre for Population studies in London, the trend in Western Europe is to'live on your own or with your spouse'. If these couples and singles are relocating in small numbers, their relocation has a great impact on their environment because they all decide to go to the same place. Favourite spots are British Coastal towns, Southern Spain and France and Florida and Arizona. Many seniors stay healthy until late in life. For Prof Claude Le Pen, economist at University Paris Dauphine, 'about 15% of the EU's ageing population lead to 60% of health care costs'. Keeping people socially connected to family and friends is an underestimated key in keeping them healthy. Western government should examine the sort of contributions elder people can make to society.