Achieving healthy ageing in Australia
Much of the escalating burden of chronic disease in an ageing Australian population can be linked to physical inactivity and weight gain, according to the late Professor Alan Owen.
Much of the escalating burden of chronic disease in an ageing Australian population can be linked to physical inactivity and weight gain, according to the late Professor Alan Owen.
As a campaigner for better health care, Professor Owen lived a life devoted to better outcomes for patients.
The inaugural Alan Owen Lecture entitled ‘Healthy Ageing in Australia – Environment, Lifestyle, Human Biology and Emerging Preventative Opportunities’ was held last week.
Musculoskeletal disorders, depression, type 2 diabetes, cardio vascular disease and breast and colon cancer have multiple adverse (and potentially avoidable) consequences for individuals, families, the workplace and the health system, Professor Owen argued.
He pointed out that studies in Australia had begun to join some of the dots linking environments, lifestyle and biology with the development of major chronic diseases. This was through a better understanding of the built-environment, social and economic factors that could influence the normal habits and choices of everyday life.
Professor Owen believed that we could take heart from having made internationally leading progress in tobacco control over the past 40 years.
He stressed how the next big population health challenges were to build the bases for comparable progress in relation to physical inactivity and the food supply.
