title: Introduction to world health statistics quarterly special issue on public health implications of aging.
abstract: The health services in most of the World Health Organization's Member States are directed at improving the wellbeing of families through improved maternal and child health, the control of poverty-related diseases and fertility regulation. Indeed, for the least developed countries, these are all-absorbing concerns. However many developing countries have shaken free from the legacy of shortened life expectancy and have begun to achieve declines in fertility. As a consequence, aging persons who previously were barely visible as a group, now feature more prominently in families, neighborhoods and communities. In effect, we are seeing the emergence of a sizeable human group-persons aged 60 and above-which, almost everywhere in the world, is the fastest growing age group of all. Increasing longevity is a subject of concern in the industrialized world also, where the attention of demographers is beginning to focus on shifts in mortality at advanced age, in view of the consequences to health and social policies of increasing survival.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003906:Developing Countries; D005544:Forecasting; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D008017:Life Expectancy; D011157:Population Dynamics; D014944:World Health Organization