3. Population ageing "Population ageing is a triumph of human- ity but also a challenge to society" (34). Worldwide, the number of persons over 60 years is growing faster than any other age group. The number of this age group was estimated to be 688 million in 2006, projected to grow to almost two billions by 2050. By that time, the population of older people will be much larger than that of children under the age of 14 years for the first time in human history. Moreover, the oldest segment of population, aged 80 and over, particularly prone to falls and its consequences is the fastest growing within older population expected to represent 20% of the older population by 2050 (35). Figure 2 illustrates the population pyramid in 2005 and 2025. It highlights the growing proportion of older population in parallel
with a decreasing proportion of younger population. The triangular population pyra- mid of 2005 will be replaced with a more cylinder-like structure in 2025.
a) impact of population ageing on falls.
Falls prevention is a challenge to popula- tion ageing. The numbers of falls increase in magnitude as the numbers of older adults increase in many nations throughout the world. Falls exponentially increase with age-related biological change, therefore a pronounced number of persons over the age of 80 years will trigger substantial increase of falls and fall injury at an alarming rate. In fact, incidence of some fall injuries, such as fractures and spinal cord injury, have mark- edly increased by 131% during the last three decades (36). If preventive measures are not taken in immediate future, the numbers of injuries caused by falls is projected to be 100% higher in the year 2030 (36).
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