HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 22 July 2020 - Morepeople are living into old age than ever before. In 2018 The World HealthOrganization predicted that by 2020 there would be more people aged over 60years than there are children under 5 years. This prediction is on track to becorrect,and numbers in the older cohort continue to rise. This hascreated challenges in providing health and social services for burgeoning olderpopulations and governments across the globe have been slow to react.Priorities are now shifting from solely addressing the health of older people,to how societies can maximise this opportunity and provide effective, inclusiveenvironments in which to age.

This report from The Economist Intelligence Unit describesfindings from the "Scaling Healthy ageing, Inclusiveenvironments and Financial security Today" (SHIFT) Index", a benchmarking analysis around ageingsocieties. The SHIFT Index benchmarksagainst a set of national-level leading practices in creating an enablingenvironment supportive of longevity and healthy ageing for societies in the 19countries comprising the Group of Twenty (G20). The SHIFT Index captures the multifactorial variables that impactageing across three domains: adaptive health and social care systems;accessible economic opportunity; and inclusive social structures andinstitutions.

The research found that no G20 country isfully prepared to support healthy, financially secure, socially-connected olderpeople. The US, Australia, Canada and South Korea ranked highest in our indexwith scores in the 70s out of 100 (see table below). Broadly, those countrieswith a higher proportion of people aged over 50 -- including the three highest ranking countries plus South Korea,Germany, France and Japan -- are implementing moreleading practices to enable inclusive environments. Wealthy countries may findit easier to respond, but wealth is not a prerequisite for providing supportiveenvironments. The best scoring health systems tend to be high-income countries,but upper-middle income Brazil, and lower-middle income Indonesia are alsomaking strides to improve health systems.

As a whole, the G20 countries perform bestin providing adaptive healthcare systems and worst in providing inclusivesocial structures and institutions, indicating that countries still have workto do to shift the focus towards building more welcoming societies for olderadults as they age. Countries also have room to improve in providing moreaccessible economic opportunities to older workers.

Despite clear progress made, governmentshave more work to do to make sure their health systems are adaptive to theneeds of older adults as they age, while also fostering inclusion and ensuringindividual economic security. A keybarrier to addressing this is lack of robust age-disaggregated data collectionby governments in areas such as dedicated health professionals, the extent ofisolation and loneliness as well as mental health.

The SHIFTIndex reveals several priority areas that may form the basis of policyresponses to develop more accessible and inclusive societies for older people:

Jesse Quigley Jones, managing editor at TheEconomist Intelligence Unit and editor of the report, said, "The challengesthat ageing populations present for economies and health systems have long-beenunderstood, yet provision of inclusive, supportive environments for olderpeople has not been a high-profile policy priority. Although wealth has emergedas a theme in the Index as a contributing factor towards healthy ageingindicators, it is not necessarily a prerequisite for providing supportiveenvironments. Lower-income nations can take low-cost measures that improveageing societies, such as enacting inclusive work environment policies andfostering inclusive and enabling social environments.

With older people particularly vulnerableto the health and societal impact of the covid-19 pandemic, it is moreimportant than ever for older people to lead healthy, independent lives for aslong as possible and avoid the need for institutional care. While our data werecollected pre-pandemic, the priorities identified in the report are now throwninto sharper light and may serve as a wakeup call for governments across theglobe for providing adaptable, accessible and inclusive environments in whichpopulations can age."

Forthe whitepaper, infographic and index workbook, please visitageingshift.economist.com

Shifting demographics: a global study oninclusive ageing is a report by The EconomistIntelligence Unit, supported by Amgen. It considers policy efforts to addressactive and inclusive ageing in 19 countries based on a first-of-its-kind indexthat benchmarks each country's performance across accessible and affordablehealthcare, social connectivity among older adults, and finance securitypractices and policies.

The "Scaling Healthy ageing, Inclusiveenvironments and Financial security Today" (SHIFT) Index and the relatedresearch programme whose findings form the basis for this report were informedby extensive research and guided by an international panel of experts fromacross academia, government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) andinternational financial institutions.

The following 19 countries (comprisingthe G20 and excluding the EU) are included in this analysis: Argentina,Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy,Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UKand the US. These were selected to broadly represent the world: coveringroughly 65% of the population and 75% of global GDP.

The EconomistIntelligence Unit is the world leader in global business intelligence. It isthe business-to-business arm of The Economist Group, which publishes TheEconomist newspaper. The Economist Intelligence Unit helps executives makebetter decisions by providing timely, reliable and impartial analysis onworldwide market trends and business strategies.

More informationcan be found at http://www.eiu.com or http://www.twitter.com/theeiu

Amgen is committedto unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses,by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative humantherapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human geneticsto unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of humanbiology.

Amgen focuses onareas of high unmet medical need, and leverages its expertise to strive forsolutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives.A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world'sleading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patientsaround the world, and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakawaypotential.

For moreinformation, visit http://www.amgen.com or http://www.twitter.com/amgen.

See the original post here:
G20 countries in Asia Pacific are not prepared for the needs of ageing populations, according to new research from the Economist Intelligence Unit -...