The National Academy of Medicine today released the Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity (Global Roadmap), its first consensus study. The report provides multi-sector recommendations for countries and societies around the world to establish critical systems needed to support health and meaningful engagement in all aspects of life for people at all stages of life.
With the global population aging as the result of two distinct trends: the rise in longevity and falling birth rates, societies around the world must act now to mitigate challenges posed by and for aging populations. Successfully maneuvering this demographic transition will require changes to social infrastructure, the physical environment, health systems, education, work, and retirement to benefit people of all ages.
The NAM assembled an International Oversight Board composed of leaders from foundations, business, government, and academia to create a scope of task and appoint an International Commission of global experts to author the Global Roadmap. The commission assessed evidence across four domains: social infrastructure; the physical environment; health systems (public health, health care, and long-term care); and education, work, and retirement. The commission prioritized equity and key targets within those domains to catalyze a movement to achieve equitable global healthy longevity.
Based on the evidence, the Global Roadmap calls for all countries to develop and implement all-of-society plans to achieve a future with more healthy years of life; learning and growth; and full participation in society across the life course. The Global Roadmap also recommends specific actions to eliminate age discrimination, promote financial stability for older people, support older people who want to work, and reallocate resources from health care to prevention.
If taken up, the commission’s roadmap can support individuals across the globe to live healthy lives with purpose and dignity, by 2050.
Learn more about the report here and read the press release here.
Visit the Healthy Longevity website to learn more about the Global Grand Challenge, including its competition component, and membership, as well as to register for updates.
For questions, please contact: healthylongevity@nas.edu
For media inquiries, please contact: Dana Korsen | DKorsen@nas.edu | 202-334-2843
