In the early decades of the 21st century, the life expectations of the ageing population of this world will be different from those in the past decades. One of the major reasons for this is improved quality of life, which leads to a longer life expectancy.
This generation has enjoyed better prenatal care, nutrition, lower childhood accident rates, healthier work environments and greater attention to preventative measures relevant to many chronic diseases. They expect to be healthier than their predecessors and to have a higher level of function and independence in later life. This group, the size of which is predicted to double by 2050, will also dominate the worlds population if the worldwide birth rates keep declining.
However, as the number of older citizens grows, so will the number of patients that will need medical attention to treat chronic diseases caused by major lifestyle factors such as smoking, poor diet, lack of physical exercise, high blood pressure, excessive alcohol consumption and excessive stress.
All of these factors contribute towards respiratory diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) or asthma. These diseases could be treated at home, which is the preference of most patients, but they are still often cared for in hospitals. This takes up valuable bed space and is very expensive to national healthcare systems.
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