Demographic Shifts and Health System Transformation

Global demographic transitions—including aging populations and declining fertility rates, youth bulges, and complex migration patterns—pose significant challenges to health systems worldwide,2. These will result in structural changes with around 55 per cent of the world’s population living in towns and cities, projected to be 70 per cent by 2050. However, changing demographics will impact health systems if we do not prepare; for example, countries with the most increase in non-communicable diseases, are least prepared to address in terms of their health systems. Investing in health systems will be critical to tackle these challenges. Key issues on demographic transitions relate to changing disease burden, healthcare infrastructure and access, aging population and long-term care, workforce and economic impact, maternal and child health, health policy and financing and technological advancements. In addition, there is a need to think of a life course approach to health and well-being and how health systems can be designed for this purpose. Overall, there is therefore a need for a holistic approach to adapt health systems to respond to the shifts in demographics.

Objectives

The objective of ST2 is to highlight the imperative for inclusive and sustainable health systems that are resilient to shifting demographics, recognizing the need for multi-sectoral, life-course approaches in the context of current global developments, to improve population health and well-being.

This sub-theme, through its plenary and parallel sessions, will examine issues related to how health systems can respond to shifting demographics and focus on topics related to migration of human resources for health, sustainable domestic financing, health service delivery systems that better respond to changing health needs driven by demographic shifts, multisectoral and community based approaches for long-term care and how values shape population policies across different contexts.

ST2 Sessions include:

PL2

Demographic Shifts and Health System Transformation