Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) are urging experts to rethink current health targets, which they say, currently place the provision of healthcare to younger groups over the elderly.
Current healthcare goals agreed for 2016-2030 by United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) define premature mortality as deaths occurring among people aged 69 years old or younger.
One of the main health targets is to reduce premature death from non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, stroke, heart disease and dementia by a third.
The UEA study, published today in the British Medical Journal, argues that this target sends out a clear statement to UN member states that health provision for younger groups must be prioritised at the expense of people aged 70 or over.
The authors are calling for the concept of premature mortality to be either abandoned or redefined so as not to discriminate against older people.
Lead author, Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, Professor of Social Policy and International Development at UEA’s School of International Development, as well as other experts on ageing, are calling for the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Division of Non-Communicable Diseaseto rethink the mortality target.
As the lead global agency on this issue the article says that its use of premature mortality discourages research and data collection for older people, and that it worsens, as well as justifies existing levels of age discrimination in health care.
The current targets also distract attention from the major challenges encountered in palliative care, article authors argue.
Speaking about the issue lead author, Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, said: “The implications for all
countries, the UK included, is that resources allocated to conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia should be diverted from older people in order to comply with this global target.
“The World Health Organisation cannot continue to take this unethical and discriminatory approach. The SDGs are the key reference point for global health over the next 15 years and must jettison this ageist approach.”
Setting out their concerns and recommendations in the BMJ, Professor Lloyd-Sherlock and co-authors Professor Martin McKee and Professor Shah Ebrahim, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, say the premature mortality target ‘sends a strong signal in favour of discriminating against older people’.
They add: “Since the 1990s key aspects of health policy have been framed by explicitly ageist principles. The prominent role given to premature mortality thresholds shows that ageism is becoming increasingly blatant. It is inconceivable that global targets would similarly discriminate against other groups, such as women or people with disabilities.”
Commenting on the issue Chris Roles, Managing Director of the charity Age International, said: “There is a need to rethink how we measure progress on tackling non-communicable diseases in all parts of the world. A focus on premature mortality discriminates against older people and doesn’t move us towards more effective management of multiple conditions, which is a critical priority for many people in later life.”
