Importance of Health in the Elderly: A Challenge to Biomedical Research & Development and to Society

Abstract

Average life expectancy has significantly increased over the last decades, at least in developed countries, due to improved sanitation, better nutrition, as well as effective prevention and/or treatment of acute diseases. Moreover, control of behavioral health-risk factors, such as smoking, obesity and insufficient physical exercise has recently been shown not only to extend life expectancy further, but also to postpone disability, compressing it into fewer years at the end of life. For a number of chronic diseases affecting particularly the elderly (e.g., systolic arterial hypertension, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease), specific treatments were established which reduce serious disease consequences (stroke, heart failure; bone pain, fracture; loss of memory and functional independence).