Healthy Aging

Healthy independent older persons contribute to the welfare of their household and community, and to describe them as passive recipients of social or health services is to perpetuate a myth. Today, however, the number of older persons is increasing exponentially in socioeconomic situations that are both complex and uncertain, and only timely interventions will make it possible to increase the contributions of this group to social development and keep it from turning into a crisis for the health and social security structure of the Americas. PAHO/WHO works in four main areas: a) Health of older persons in public policy; (b) Suitability of health systems to meet the challenges of an aging population; (c) Training of the human resources necessary to meet this challenge; and (d) Development of the capacity to generate the information needed to undertake and evaluate action to improve the health of the older population.