ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the health status of future generations of elderly people and the role of prevention in healthcare. It starts by describing the most important demographic developments, and their influence on the occurrence of chronic diseases in the elderly. The chapter explains the health effects of prevention concerning two risk factors, i.e. smoking and overweight. However, many more preventive activities exist, for example the prevention of hip fractures, primary prevention through medication, and vaccination. Primary prevention through medication is already common practice for different risk factors, for example blood pressure and blood cholesterol, although more health gains are still possible. Investing in existing prevention strategies, like the campaigns against overweight, and reinforcing prevention within healthcare is important. Birth rates play no role, since all elderly people of 2020 are already born in 2000; mortality trends are reasonably reliable, and migration is not an important factor in the demography of the elderly population.
