Life Expectancy and Disease Burden in Older People in the Region of the Americas

Abstract

This report characterizes the health situation of older people in the Region of the Americas, based on a number of indicators including life expectancy, healthy life expectancy at birth and at age 60, burden of disease, and mortality from 2000 to 2019, as well as excess mortality associated with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in older people from 2020 to 2021. The analysis shows the importance of these indicators in appropriately allocating resources and in setting health priorities for the older population. It is imperative that efforts to promote healthy aging include actions to prevent disability and resulting dependency. It is therefore essential to establish and strengthen the collection of functional capacity indicators for the older population, in order to provide a more comprehensive means of measuring health. This is extremely important given the rapid demographic transition in the Region, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. In all subregions, excess deaths associated with the pandemic were concentrated among people over 60 years of age, highlighting the vulnerability of older people. This report provides vital, basic information that supports public policies aimed at comprehensively improving the health of older people, with a focus on promoting functional capacity and preventing disability for healthy aging.