Younger generations urged to prepare for 'healthy aging'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Younger generations urged to prepare for 'healthy aging'

If you stop a young Chinese couple in downtown Beijing and ask, "Have you heard that China has become an ageing society?", probably, you will get a positive answer.

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If you stop a young Chinese couple in downtown Beijing and ask, "Have you heard that China has become an ageing society?", probably, you will get a positive answer.

But when you throw out a second question "Are you ready for it?", you are likely to be laughed at and then ignored, being considered ridiculous to link "ageing" directly to a "young couple".

Experts here raised the concept of "healthy ageing" in China and noted that it is not only an issue for the aged group, but for the whole society. Young people who start early to prepare for it could contribute greater to this process, they said.

Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed that China had been reporting a high growth rate of the aged population and had already become an ageing society, with about 134 million people, or 10 percent of the country's total, older than 60.

Zheng Xiaoying, director of the Institute of Population Research of Beijing University, pointed out that ageing is a natural process throughout human life, and therefore everyone must adopt the concept of healthy ageing.

Healthy ageing means investing in health and promoting it throughout one's life span to ensure that one remains free of diseases, capable of contributing to the society, and continues to be recognized as a full member of the society even when he or she gets old, explained Zheng.

To pursue a healthy ageing process, the young people should be very careful in selecting their work places, living environments and lifestyle, to optimize the health conditions throughout their lives, Zheng said.

The average life expectancy in China has increased to 71.4 years from 40 years, and people are likely to live to their 80s if they watch their health conditions, said Wu Cangping, 81, a noted professor of China's ageing studies with the People's University of China.

The longer life expectancy has posed challenges to the quality of life for senior citizens, said Wu. Young people should put aside money and invest in social security schemes, to support their own lives after retirement for at least 20 years, he suggested.

As the longer life expectancy also makes it possible for people to work longer than before, young and middle-aged people should never stop improving themselves and always be well prepared for new opportunities in their careers, said Zheng.

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