The Path to Healthy Aging in China: a PKU-Lancet Commission

Nov 24-2022   

In Chengze Forum on November 21, the report ‘The path to healthy aging in China: a Peking University-Lancet Commission’ was released in the presence of experts and scholars who attended the physical event or online.

Prof. Zhao Yaohui, PKU Bo Ya Distinguished Professor and NSD Professor of Economics, and 30 other Chinese and foreign scholars took four years to complete the report.

The report shows that China has the world’s largest older population (60 years old and above), and China’s aging burdens will increase further as the second baby boomers, those born between 1962 and 1975, start to enter retirement in 2022. In addition, China’s rapid demographic transition over the past four decades will lead to a striking decline in the number of living children for each older person in China and will bring substantial challenges for both family-based care and social care. Achieving healthy aging is necessary for China to reap positive benefits from increased longevity and to reduce potential economic and social burdens that could accompany rapid population aging.

In an interview with Lancet, Prof. Zhao says that if people are living longer and they stay healthy, then there will be dividend. She highlights some of the Commission’s recommendations, including upgrading social pensions to provide old-age financial security, promoting healthy lifestyles, improving physical environments, and making the move from disease-centered care to person-centered care. In particular, she recommends emphasizing the maintenance of function in older people, not just the diseases.