The challenges for healthcare as Australia’s population ages
Mark Fear | August 18, 2009
The Australian Bureau of Statistics projects that by 2050 the percentage of people aged 65 or over will have almost doubled from 13% today to 25% of the population. This change will bring with it the challenge of providing health care and allowing people to maintain a good quality of life as they age. With chronic disease also on the rise (3 million Australians will be diabetic by 2030), health problems in older people are also expected to increase, making the current costs and systems in place for treatment completely inadequate for the future needs of Australia.
Identifying future problems may be easy, but it is more fruitful to identify ways we can avoid them. The good news is that the key to solving this challenge is not reliant on the government, or a small group of researchers, but lies with every individual in Australia.
The most significant change to the quality of life people can expect as life expectancy increases can be made by lifestyle changes and taking responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. Prevention is often talked about, but the impact of how we live today on how we can expect to live in the future cannot be overestimated. Chronic diseases can be prevented, or their effects limited by changes in lifestyle, from eating less to exercising more. Interestingly, one of the few studies to demonstrate clear increases in life expectancy came from observing rats given a calorie-restricted diet. By reducing their food intake, their lifespan increased significantly, and much of this can be attributed to reducing the effects of insulin, the hormone responsible for controlling blood-sugar, on the body.
There are other important ways individuals can contribute to the solution. For example, learning first aid can significantly improve a person’s chances of recovery, and the quality of their recovery should they be unfortunate enough to suffer in an accident. Knowing first aid offers a chance to help others, and the benefits of more widespread basic first aid knowledge on people’s long term health would be significant.Lastly, the importance of research to meet this challenge cannot be underestimated. Whilst science has had a huge impact on improving the chances of recovery from illness, one thing that has not been adequately addressed is the costs of treatment. As research continues to provide clinical answers, it will also have to adapt to the increased pressures on costs, and provide not only better treatments but cheaper and easier treatment options for people to be able to benefit. Importantly, people need to become more engaged with research for benefits to continue to be realised. This does not necessarily involve funding, but volunteering for studies is an important way that individuals can help improve research. Often a significant amount of time for human studies is the recruitment of patients or volunteers, and this can slow down progress. A more widespread understanding of what research can contribute, and how individuals can be involved, will go a long way to help achieve the level of research needed to address future health care, and making the small differences mentioned here really can help solve the challenges we are facing for future healthcare.
Dr Mark Fear, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Burn Injury Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Western Australia
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Eclipse
August 21, 2009 at 12:22 am
Abolish the States
Having a National and Local government model, with a clear National Department of Health, would save $50 billion dollars according to Dr Mark Drummond’s Phd on the subject. No more buck-passing, and more money than previous governments have ever dreamed of. Nurses and doctors moving interstate would now know the National Health guidelines and proceedures, and would not have to re-learn all that boring admin.