Getting older better

In the UK, the queen sends a birthday letter to everyone who reaches a century. Over the past decade, the number of people receiving such royal greetings has risen by 70 per cent. It’s not just in Britain that ever more of the population is reaching venerable ages. Demographic change is sweeping the world – people are getting older and having fewer children during their fertile years. The result, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) roundtable, is a whole new series of economic challenges – and opportunities.

Longer lifespans have enormous but under-explored implications, both good and bad, not just for health but for education, for work and for the structure of society, according to Andrew Scott, professor of economics at the London Business School and co-author of “The 100-year life”, a book about how we make the most of longer lifespans.

“In the 20th century, most of the gains of life expectancy we took as leisure after retirement, but that’s causing a problem because we can’t finance it,” argues Scott.
Increasingly, people will have to work longer, retire later and adjust how and when they enter and take breaks from the workforce. Education is no longer just something that’s done in one’s youth, but something that is spread over the lifetime. But it’s not just a matter of individual decisions, governments will need to create environments that are responsive to the change in demographics.

For instance, Singapore “is focusing a lot upon local health provision, preventative health provision, adult learning, and maintaining and revising employment practices for older people so that they can carry on working for longer,” Scott adds.

Technology will help with the adjustment to longer lifespans. In some cases that means health monitoring by app or video consultations with doctors. In others, advanced forms of artificial intelligence, like socially assisted humanoid robots will be able to help, argues Elizabeth Sukkar, managing editor at the EIU and Global Healthcare Lead. The home itself can be redesigned to both assist people in failing health and to help them remain productive.

It’s not just a question of longevity, but ensuring people plan for longer lives. And, says Scott, it’s not about “help me be more comfortable when I’m older, but help me age better so that when I reach 80 or 90 I’m actually independent and capable of doing what I want to do”.

This means preparation, including encouraging middle aged adults to use their 40s and 50s, and not just for recreation, with education and the building up of new skills so that they can lead productive lives well into their 70s. But this also depends on making sure they stay healthy.

Getting better all the time

Life improvements, such as better diets, more physical exercise and reduced smoking, have led to longer lifespans and postponed health disasters in many people. But health need not just mean getting no worse. There is also considerable scientific endeavour aimed at reversing some of the effects of ageing with radical genetic approaches and cutting edge medicine.

For instance, one possibility is organ regeneration. Michael Hufford, chief executive of LyGenesis, a biotech firm looking to extend human lifespans, argues that developing organ regeneration technology is one attractive avenue of investigation. His firm uses the capacity of lymph nodes to act as bioreactors – basically biological factories that can multiply cells – to grow functioning mini organs. In theory, this approach will be able to replace “a whole host of different organs, from liver to kidneys to pancreas to the thymus.”

So while the world gets older, there are ways of ensuring these older people stay healthier and more productive longer, lifting some of the financial burden for their support from younger generations and improving quality of life generally.

You can hear more about the future of ageing on the "New Foundations" podcast.