A 2015 World Health Organization Research study demonstrated that current public-health approaches to aging population has clearly been ineffective. It further states that the health of older people is not keeping up with increasing longevity and that newer approaches need to be developed. It suggests a strategy that involves measurement, monitoring and understanding by leveraging technology solutions.

Therefore there are many good reasons for focusing on senior’s health and wellness. Unfortunately as most studies have highlighted, alignment of public health system to the needs of seniors is inadequate. The core issues that seniors face – maintain functionality, escalating costs of care, impaired quality of life and difficulty to maintain independence.

As the evidence shows, the loss of ability typically associated with ageing is only loosely related to a person’s chronological age. There is no “typical” older person. The resulting diversity in the capacities and health needs of older people is not random, but rooted in events throughout the life course that can often be modified, underscoring the importance of a life-course approach. Though older people will eventually experience multiple health problems, older age does not imply dependence. Guided by this evidence, the WHO report aims to move the debate about the most appropriate public health response to population ageing into new and much broader territory.

In setting out this framework, the report emphasizes that healthy ageing is more than just the absence of disease. For most older people, the maintenance of functional ability has the highest importance. The greatest costs to society are not the expenditures made to foster this functional ability, but the benefits that might be missed if we fail to make the appropriate adaptations and investments. The recommended societal approach to population ageing, which includes the goal of building an age-friendly world, requires a transformation of health systems away from disease-based curative models and towards the provision of integrated care that is centered on the needs of older people.