Special journal supplement of Health Research Policy and Systems features research findings from ten countries supported by WHO Kobe Centre
The WHO Centre for Health Development (WHO Kobe Centre) is pleased to announce the publication of ten peer-reviewed papers in a journal supplement funded by WHO Kobe Centre, that present new findings that will inform health systems’ responses to rapid population ageing.
The population of older people continues to increase worldwide. The share of the global population aged 65 years or above is projected to rise from 10 per cent in 2022 to 16 per cent in 2050. As a result, by 2050, the number of persons aged 65 years or over will be more than twice the number of children under age 5. [1] This fundamental demographic shift will require significant shifts in focus of health and social policy guided by solid research evidence. This change will be manageable, even in lower- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa, which will experience rapid population ageing at rates above 3 per cent per year, as they will still have relatively small proportions of older people in 2050, ranging from 5 to 13 per cent.
This special supplement of Health Research Policy and Systems features findings from ten countries: Cambodia, Japan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic [Lao PDR], Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The studies reflect the challenges that this diverse set of countries face in progressively achieving universal health coverage (UHC) in the context of population ageing, including service fragmentation, limited availability and accessibility of care for older people, financial barriers to using care, and sustainability of financing and revenue generation for health and long-term care.
These research projects were selected for funding through a competitive process that targeted researchers and institutions in member states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and was part of a commitment by WHO Kobe Centre in the follow-up to the 2017 ASEAN–Japan Ministerial Meeting on UHC and Population Ageing.
These studies hold many insights crucial for future health policy:
- Prevalence and determinants of unmet needs for hypertension care among the older population in Selangor: cross-sectional study
- Unmet needs for hypertension diagnosis among older adults in Myanmar: secondary analysis of a multistage sampling study
- Assessment of cognitive function among adults aged ≥60 years using the Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale: cross-sectional study, Lao People\'s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR)
- Developing a toolkit for implementing evidence-based guidelines to manage hypertension and diabetes in Cambodia: a descriptive case study
- In-service training programme for health and social care workers in the Philippines to strengthen interprofessional collaboration in caring for older adults: a mixed methods study
- Effectiveness of community integrated intermediary care (CIIC) service model to enhance family-based long-term care for Thai older adults in Chiang Mai, Thailand: a cluster randomized controlled trial TCTR20190412004
- Household financial burden associated with health care for older people in Viet Nam: A cross-sectional survey
- Ethics of Participation and Social Inclusion of Older Persons in Research: Lessons learnt from the Covid-19 Pandemic in Singapore
- Implication of using cognitive function-related simple questions to stratify the risk of long-term care need: population-based prospective study in Kobe, Japan
- Can healthy ageing moderate the effects of population ageing on economic growth and health spending trends in Mongolia? A modelling study
Read the editorial by WHO Kobe Centre’s Megumi Rosenberg, Shinichi Tomioka and Sarah Louise Barber.
Find all ten papers in the supplement published by BioMed Central’s Health Research Policy and Systems.
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[1] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results. UN DESA/POP/2022/TR/NO. 3.