Future of an Ageing Population

Future of an Ageing Population | Health and Care Systems
older people. Interventions to promote learning through the life course, better
housing conditions and environments that promote active lives are examples.
Physical activity clearly plays a role in disease prevention and positive health
outcomes, but less is known about how to encourage people to be more active.
Current evidence suggests that successful interventions should focus on small
improvements, include several components (e.g. physical activity and diet),
and offer a wide variety of activities to choose from with regular follow ups
over a long period of time to ensure activity levels are maintained 177 . Selfmanagement
interventions, such as wearable technologies, have a small but
varying effect across a wide range of outcomes, but little is known about the
mechanisms behind this 177 and if interventions in later life are effective across
large population groups.
Policy Implication
Without improvements in healthy life expectancy or in the productivity
of the health service, the UK’s health and care costs will increase as the
population ages. Interventions throughout a person’s lifetime, such as
those promoting healthy living and decreasing social isolation, have
significant potential to affect their health in old age.
6.3 Care in the home and community
The health and care sectors are set to experience a significant growth in
demand resulting from increasing prevalence of ill health in the population.
Projections suggest an increase of over 600,000 jobs in caring and personal
services by 2022 178 . However GP recruitment, and that of other healthcare
professionals, is declining at a time when people increasingly receive treatment
and support at home and in the community 163 . The increasing ratio of older
people to those in work may limit the number of people available to work in the
care sector and the number of people who can fund state care provision, and
the rest of the health care system. The future health service will also require
a much wider range of staff capacities than at present, including people who
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