Thanks to the development of drugs, better nutrition and more hygienic conditions, average life expectancy - especially in the western world - has increased by decades over the past century. By 2050, 20% of world population will be over 60 years old and the number of people over 80 will triple. A major effort is needed, not only to further increase the quality of life in an ageing society, but also to maintain the standard of living achieved. Crucial is the question: how far can and are we willing to go?
Connecting character
Enabling vital and healthy ageing requires efforts in all areas of the health sector. The ageing of society is accompanied by a sharp increase in age-related chronic diseases, such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, dementia and cancer. The development of these diseases is also accelerated by today's unhealthy lifestyles, which give rise to overweight and obesity. Conceptually, it is possible to address age-related diseases as a group rather than as individual diseases. Early diagnosis is essential for this. In addition, new drugs and treatments are needed for the population to grow old healthily and actively. Molecular knowledge of diseases provides the basis for new treatment methods. However, the future lies in translational research, where research is translated to humans and their environment. The interaction between heredity, environment and lifestyle of the individual determines whether or not people age healthily. In addition, innovations in the field of preventive behavioural interventions, housing, nutrition, ICT, e-health and mobile-health, medical devices, as well as innovations in the healthcare sector itself are badly needed. To actually arrive at innovative products and services, close cooperation is needed between research institutes, industry and government in areas such as genomics, clinical, epidemiological and behavioural research, preferably in public-private partnerships. A challenge is to combine that type of research with developments in architecture, in the creative sector and within the leading food and medical devices industries, among others. Besides serving an obvious public interest, this topic also offers many economic opportunities.
