Late last year the world’s population hit 8 billion people. There are now more older people in the world than young children - just under around 1.5 billion people are over 60; 600 million people in Asia are over 65 and in the US 10,000 people reach 65 every day. Looking forward, by 2050, there are projected to be over 2.1 billion over 60 globally, with the fastest growing age group the over 80s. There are essentially two key global mega challenges for innovation for humanity – healthy people and healthy planet.
The global pandemic has clearly shown how closely our health is linked to our wealth. We need to see health an asset to invest in to maximise wealth. This means that attention, from all stakeholders in health including government, public and private sector, must focus on prevention rather than cure, far earlier in people’s lives, while addressing the wider determinants of our health and wellbeing. This agenda is about healthy longevity – it’s about how to ensure people of all stages across the life course have what they need to proactively plan and prepare for happier, productive longer lives. Healthy Longevity is clearly a massive multi trillion-dollar market and commercial opportunity – nearly 60% of global spending will come from the over 60s in the next 10 years. Yet it is underserved. There is an urgency to do things differently if we are to rapidly deliver real solutions – practical, visible, tangible products, services and experiences – and collectively address societies’ biggest most pressing problems. We already have so much rich evidence about what is working and are on the cusp of realising the amazing, transformative power of data, of digital, technology and artificial intelligence. This agenda effects every sector, in every country, and pretty much every aspect of all our lives. Opportunities abound for founders of new businesses, for start-ups, but also for established businesses to adapt an existing offer to meet older consumer needs, to find new markets and connect with new audiences in healthy longevity economies.
Shifting the dial to Prevention
Across the world, governments spend vast sums – in the UK 40% of health costs - treating people whose conditions are fundamentally avoidable. The burden of just one preventable disease in the UK – cardiovascular disease – costs society over £18 billion every year. This needs to change – and is the burning platform. We need to shift sick care to a new model that’s about helping the whole population to stay healthy across the life course and reduce demand on our health and care systems. RAND research showed that daily walking would generate not only health benefits but economic benefits too. If every adult between ages 18 and 64 walked an extra 15 minutes a day, the world economic production would see an increase of about $100 billion, on a year-by-year basis. Effective monitoring and blood pressure control is another example where a simple intervention could have a massive impact. Improving physical functioning and delaying the onset of age-related conditions to extend healthy life expectancy is imperative. Detecting and preventing aging-releated diseases, chronic diseases and cardiovascular diseases is a key priority investing in life sciences and wider clinical innovation, as well as promoting lifestyle changes and using age tech and medical devices to promote brain health and prevent and delay cognitive decline and dementia. Establishing a health care system which provides personalised and affordable care for patients with different stages of age-related conditions will be necessary. Cognitive decline and dementia is a key concern – with increasing interest in brain health, medications, medical devices and training to delay cognitive decline, memory loss or loss of physical abilities.
More or less, 25 percent of our rate of ageing and lifespan is determined by genetics. The other 75 percent is lifestyle. 75% down to lifestyle shows how we live really matters. Mindset, movement, nutrition, environment, stress, rest, and connection are some of the foundational elements that either speed up or help to slow the rate of aging. Keeping people socially connected is fundamental to successful ageing and working longer with greater productivity is also a key trend. Many companies are having to consider retention and attraction of older workers to their workforce. The OECD has highlighted that ensuring older people have opportunities to contribute and to work differently and longer would raise GDP by 20% over the next decades.
At the heart of improved health and wellbeing is a deep, integrated understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that contribute to maintaining health across the full life course. And this will only be possible if we change how we conduct ageing research, both by bringing together scientists from many disciplines with the public, clinicians, policymakers and industry. And this means more than drugs to target the underlying biology of ageing. We need to look at the entire exposome, that describes all the factors that influence our health and ageing trajectory, including behaviour, environment and lifestyle. There is so much we can do now that will have a dramatic impact on healthspans.
Personalisation: Businesses are struggling to segment this huge consumer group - older consumers are misunderstood and continue to be stereotyped, with outdated myths and assumptions about what consumers need. This is actually the most sophisticated range of consumers, diverse in age and experience, yet too often continue to be represented together as an homogenous group. All the evidence suggests that the older you get, the more different you get – which just makes sense as people are inevitably shaped by a lifetime of different experiences, developing preferences, ever changing needs as they transition through various life stages and events, and with diverse and complex financial and social circumstances. There simply is no one size fits all. Consumers are increasingly discerning, open to exploring new models and wanting to look beyond existing provision. Growing numbers of consumers especially post COVID are extremely tech-savvy, and over 50s dominate technology markets, seeking personalised services with business models that give them direct choice and control. Healthy longevity demands an effective connected ecosystem of products and services.
Cities of Longevity: Given up to 80% of the world’s population live in cities or urban areas, cities in every region are considering how to best design and develop sustainable urban environments which can improve both the quality of life of the environment and improve the health of their populations. It is now not unusual to have 3, 4 generations living and working together. Intergenerational design and delivery is a key trend. There is a trend towards smarter living spaces to meet older people’s needs. Home environments which focus on supporting better health and daily living for older people, with functions such as monitoring safety, proactive connections with social assistance, and voice-controlled interfaces to support social interaction and with environment will become popular. Increasingly, sensors for detecting physiological characteristics and psychological factors such as emotions are increasing – all giving intelligence to look for feedback on unusual patterns or behaviours so action can be taken.
Innovative care models to streamline support - and at an affordable cost is key. Most older people live independently and with support from digital technologies, will be able to continue to do so. However, not everyone has family or a network of informal support. Care models will need to account for changing circumstances and support people who live alone or have limited resources. Of course, robots have long had potential to provide multi functional support, from in -home services such as cleaning and cooking; to support exercising and also increasingly with cognitive training with greater emotional understanding.
We are innovating now for the second billion – we can together help deliver on transforming millions of peoples healthier, happier longer lives and ensuring more people across the globe enjoy life to its fullest potential and businesses give both a return on investment and a return on society.
Professor Lynne Corner is Director of Voice Global – a citizen engagement network currently establishing in Taiwan and Deputy Director of the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing. The UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) has a strategy on Ageing Intelligence © - helping businesses to navigate the complexity of healthy ageing, which covers every sector and demands a multi and inter disciplinary approach.
