The World Health Organization (WHO) has set its sights on exploding myths about aging and promoting health and well-being in older age as global life expectancy continues to rise.
In observance last week of World Health Day, WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, MD, MPH, said stereotypes of older people as a homogeneous group mainly from industrialized nations who no longer contribute to their families or society are far from the truth. "The majority of older people prove these notions wrong every day, and it is an example that has inspired the WHO to focus on aging," she said in a statement.
WHO is promoting the Active Aging initiative of the United Nations, which is marking 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons. The initiative encourages people to take steps that will ensure greater health in the later years for themselves and their communities.
