June 2025

LGBT Older Adults: Chosen Family and Caregiving

By Nancy J. Knauer In the United States, informal eldercare is principally the responsibility of younger relatives. Adult children perform the majority of eldercare and nonrelatives perform only fourteen percent of care. Caregiving in the LGBT community follows a very different pattern that reflects the importance of “chosen family” in the lives of LGBT older adults. Instead of relying on relatives, LGBT older adults largely care for each other. Relatives provide only eleven percent of all eldercare. This article explores the...

Nigeria. PTAD explores health insurance expansion for pensioners

The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate has sought to expand the pilot phase of its collaboration with the National Health Insurance Authority to enable more pensioners to benefit from health insurance coverage. This was indicated in a statement following a recent visit by the Executive Secretary of PTAD, Tolulope Odunaiya, to the office of the Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority, Dr. Kelechi Ohiri. In 2023, PTAD and NHIA entered into a collaboration to provide health insurance coverage for pensioners under...

May 2025

The Longevity Story: Opportunities and Considerations

By World Governments Summit   This report delves into the concept of longevity, highlighting how advancements in medical technology, sanitation, preventive care, and lifestyle choices have significantly increased human lifespans—from an average of 45 years in the 1950s to over 73 years today. While early efforts to extend life overlooked aging itself, recent focus on understanding and potentially reversing the aging process has fueled the growth of the longevity industry. Organizations like Altos Labs, Hevolution Foundation, and Pure Health are pioneering...

China. Eld­erly patients to get improved clin­ical care

China plans to build more clin­ics spe­cial­iz­ing in geri­at­rics at major hos­pit­als and strengthen their cap­ab­il­it­ies as part of broader efforts to address the needs of a rap­idly aging soci­ety, accord­ing to a recent guideline released by the National Health Com­mis­sion. The updated guideline on the estab­lish­ment and man­age­ment of clin­ics for eld­erly patients, issued on Thursday, replaces an earlier ver­sion from 2019. It man­dates that hos­pit­als in the upper two tiers of the coun­try’s three-tier hos­pital sys­tem estab­lish such clin­ics...

April 2025

US budget: Senior care will shrink even as the country’s older population grows.

The Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services delivers a devastating blow to the very foundation of aging services in America. By breaking apart the coordination and delivery of programs under the Older Americans Act, the administration is jeopardizing the health, independence and dignity of millions of older adults and their caregivers. At the core of this proposal is the dismantling of the Administration for Community Living, the agency that has effectively administered the Older...

March 2025

As the U.S. population ages, solo caregiving becomes more common

Call it a silver tsunami or just going gray. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in just 10 years, older adults will outnumber those under 18 for the first time in U.S. history. America is aging, and that means more families providing care for parents and grandparents and even great-great-grandparents. And while much has already been said about caregiving, there is far less research into what it's like to walk that road alone. To talk about solo caregiving and...

Meeting the Growing Demand for Age-Friendly Care: Health Care at the Crossroads

By The John A. Hartford Foundation America is aging rapidly. Those age 65 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the population. From 2025-2050, the number of adults 65+ will increase by 30%, from 63 million to 82 million, accounting for nearly one quarter (23%) of the total population by mid-century. And the “oldest old” ranks are growing even faster: the number of adults age 85 and older is projected to more than double between 2025 and 2050, from 7 million...

America’s aging population faces a growing shortage of geriatric care

Jerry Gurwitz, a 68-year-old geriatrician based in Massachusetts, is at a tricky point in his career. He's spent decades taking care of older Americans, but now, as Gurwitz approaches the age of some of his own patients, he sees a brewing problem with his profession: there aren't many people willing to take his job, and he has serious doubts over whether there will be enough doctors to properly take care of people as they get older, he told Business Insider. Gurwitz,...

The 2023 Latin America report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: the imperative for health-centred climate-resilient development

By Stella M. Hartinger, Yasna K. Palmeiro-Silva, Camila Llerena-Cayo, Luciana Blanco-Villafuerte, Luis E. Escobar, Avriel Diaz, Juliana Helo Sarmiento, Andrés G. Lescano, Oscar Melo, David Rojas-Rueda, Bruno Takahashi, Max Callaghan, Francisco Chesini, Shouro Dasgupta, Carolina Gil Posse, Nelson Gouveia, Aline Martins de Carvalho, Zaray Miranda-Chacón, Nahid Mohajeri, Chrissie Pantoja, Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson, Maria Fernanda Salas, Raquel Santiago, Enzo Sauma, Mauricio Santos-Vega, Daniel Scamman, Milena Sergeeva, Tatiana Souza de Camargo, Cecilia Sorensen, Juan D. Umaña, Marisol Yglesias-González, Maria Walawender,...

February 2025

AI robots may hold key to nursing Japan’s ageing population

Recently in Tokyo an AI-driven robot leaned over a man lying on his back and gently put a hand on his knee and another on a shoulder and rolled him onto his side -- a manoeuvre used to change diapers or prevent bedsores in the elderly. The 150-kg (330 lb) artificial intelligence-driven humanoid robot called AIREC is a prototype future "caregiver" for Japan's rapidly ageing population and chronic shortage of aged-care workers. "Given our highly advanced ageing society and declining births,...