As the world’s population is growing increasingly older, Japan, host nation for this year’s summit of the Group of 20 (G-20), is calling on global leaders to address aging and its policy implications. This year’s summit is the first to identify aging as a priority issue, according to remarks from Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso.
It is about time.
More specifically, it is about spans; the growing population of people around the world living to their 80s and beyond, a number projected to reach 434 million by 2050, means we need to be investing in health spans, extending the portion of our lives that we spend in good health rather than in disability.
Japan knows this all too well as the country with the world’s oldest population; one of every five people is age 70 or older. But they certainly are not alone. The average life expectancy for most developed nations is now around 80 years. The dramatic increase in life expectancy, a near doubling during the 20th century, has been called one of society’s greatest achievements.
Yet, while people are living longer, they spend too many years with too many age-related conditions such as heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. This is what is known as the disability span. Previous research from my colleague Eileen Crimmins found that from 1970 to 2010 the average total lifespan in the United States increased for men and women in those 40 years, but so did the proportion of time spent living with a disability.
However, another recent study led by Morgan Levine showed that the rate of aging can be slowed, or delayed, through modified health behaviors, such as stopping smoking and using prescription medications such as statins. These findings have significant implications for policymaking around financial, medical and social well-being. In terms of public health, simply adopting preventive behaviors such as improving diets and increasing physical activity could extend health spans, increase productivity and reduce health care costs.
Increased adoption of healthy behaviors could even impact the rate of Alzheimer’s disease, the biggest challenge related to the aging population. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias could exceed $1 trillion by 2050, with implications for senior housing, care giving and drug development. Treatments for Alzheimer’s remain elusive, and researchers are increasingly focusing on the possibility of preventing it in the first place. Research at the University of Southern California has indicated both that diet interacts with our genes to influence our risk of the disease and that mental and physical activity may help delay disease onset. Another USC study found that by 2050, a five-year delay in onset of the disease would lead to a 41 percent lower prevalence of the disease and a 40 percent decrease in the overall societal costs.
The field of geroscience offers the promise of solutions in the form of uncovering new methods of delaying age-related processes. Following successes in genetically tailored cancer treatment, we are on the cusp of exciting new fronts in fighting other diseases of aging with genomic-based personalized interventions. The ability to capitalize on large datasets allows us to begin to predict who might be at risk for certain conditions and target treatment and prevention efforts accordingly. My lab focuses on the potential of mitochondrial peptides to protect against the development of diseases of aging. Other opportunities for development include frailty interventions, senolytics and stem cell therapy.
These endeavors have benefits that extend beyond health. A recent study in Science found that federal research increasingly appears to fuel innovation that develops new jobs, industrial competitiveness and entrepreneurial success. The study authors “urge policymakers to consider these newly observable benefits of federal research when they formulate tax policy and science research budgets.”
The World Health Organization stated it best in its written contributions to the G-20 health priorities: The greatest costs to society are not the expenditures made to foster healthy and active aging, including universal health coverage and long-term care, but the benefits (e.g. better health, skills and knowledge, social connectivity, personal and financial security, personal dignity) that might be missed if we fail to make the appropriate adaptations and investments.
Japan was right to put aging on the agenda for this year’s summit. Research progress in this area requires time and patience. Going forward, we must focus on prolonging one more span in order to make a lasting difference in aging well — the attention span of our world’s leaders.
Pinchas Cohen, MD is the dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. He addressed finance leaders, policymakers and other stakeholders at the G-20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) Forum on Aging and Financial Inclusion on June 7th in Tokyo.
