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Commission supports World Health Day ‘Good health adds life to years’
The theme of this year’s World Health Day – held on 7 April - was "Good health adds life to years", and the objective of the Day was to raise awareness of what individuals, industry, civil society and governments can and should do to address the societal challenge of ageing.
Gender differences in life expectancy
According to statistics published by Eurostat on 19 April, at the age of 65, women in all EU member states have longer life expectancy than men; healthy life expectancy at age 65 is higher for men than for women in ten member states.
New kind of hospital physician Must be trained in geriatric medicine
In a letter to the BMJ (published 24 April 2012), Des O'Neill et. al. argue for the acute geriatric medicine model, saying that while a recent Cochrane review shows that this model effectively leads to reductions in death, disability, and institutionalisation compared with the general medicine model there is still a disappointing "agnoticism" around this issue.
Click here to read the letter in full.
Commission launches consultation on chronic diseases
The European Commission and EU Member States have recently launched a reflection process to respond to the growing challenge of chronic diseases. This was called for in the Council conclusions on "Innovative approaches for chronic diseases in public health and healthcare systems" of December 2010. In addition, the UN High Level Meeting on non-communicable diseases in New York in 2011 confirmed that addressing chronic diseases has become a global priority.
Parliament adopts resolution on diabetes
On 14 March, a resolution calling for an EU-wide strategy to tackle diabetes was adopted by the Parliament. The resolution calls on the European Commission to define and implement an EU strategy in the form of a recommendation to the Council on diabetes prevention, diagnosis, management, education and research. It also invites member states to establish and implement national diabetes programmes and to promote ‘type 2’ diabetes prevention and healthy lifestyle strategies.
Currently, only 16 member states have a national framework or programme to combat diabetes and there are no criteria for defining a ‘good’ programme.
A new vision for old age - Rethinking health policy for Europe’s ageing society
The Intelligence Unit of The Economist recently produced a report entitled, A new vision for old age - rethinking health policy for Europe’s ageing society.”
The Unit surveyed 1,113 healthcare professionals in UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Netherlands, as well as countries in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Most of the respondents were frontline healthcare staff but also included people involved in policy/strategy, administration, research and development and manufacturing.
