Older people's access to medicines and assistive devices in the Western Pacific Region

Overview

The Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization comprises a population of 1.8 billion people from 37 countries and areas. Population ageing is a key public health challenge confronting the Region. The proportion of people aged over 60 years is increasing at a faster rate than any other age group, a result of declining fertility rates and longer life expectancies. The growth in the number of older people is a consequence of the success of public health and development policies. The challenge now is to maximize the health, functional capacity, social participation and security of older people. This requires developments in health and social system infrastructure and services. The window of time available to develop policies, programmes, infrastructure and services to meet the social and health needs of the ageing population is relatively narrow because of the rapid rise in the proportion of the population that is older.

This review covers literature published in English since 2000 concerning medicines or assistive devices for older people in countries and areas in the Western Pacific Region. The review includes published academic literature as well as government reports and grey literature.