Europe urged to plan healthy future

European countries must increase healthcare spending now to protect their rapidly aging populations in the years to come, the World Health Organization has said.

Governments should start by encouraging people to eat more healthily and take more exercise, the WHO said in Promoting Physical Activity and Healthy Diets for Healthy Aging in the WHO European Region, a report released on Wednesday.

Stephen Whiting, WHO Europe's technical advisor on sport and health, said the COVID-19 pandemic taught us that people who have healthier lifestyles are more resilient.

"There's data that shows that physical inactivity, overweight and obesity were a huge risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes and long COVID-19," Euronews quoted him as saying. "So, this is a really opportune time to actually invest in prevention for whether it's future emergencies, future pandemics, climate change-related heat events and emergencies, promoting physical activity and healthy diets to all population groups as well as older adults is a win-win, and it's a cost-effective intervention."

The WHO, which is the United Nations' international public health agency, said Europe's population is ageing fast, with the number of people aged 65 and older set to outnumber people aged 15 and under for the first time in the coming months.

The shift is partly down to people having smaller families and partly due to breakthroughs in healthcare that mean people survive illnesses today that would have killed them in the past. But with proportionally fewer taxpayers year-on-year for every pensioner, nations will need to ensure their aging populations do not place a great strain on their healthcare resources.

The WHO report said European governments should urge more people to eat healthier Mediterranean-style diets, with plentiful fruits and vegetables, and avoid ultra-processed foods. And it said people should be urged to take a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate physical exercise a week. European governments should also improve their health surveillance systems, to ensure people who are diagnosed with conditions get the help they need.

"We published a report … earlier this year on the cost of physical inactivity on health systems in the European Union, and we estimated that 8 billion euros ($8.5 billion) per year could be saved if more people were physically active and meeting the WHO recommended levels of physical activity," Whiting said.

Kremlin Wickramasinghe, WHO Europe's regional adviser on nutrition, physical activity, and obesity, said in a statement: "Our report highlights why policymakers, businesses, and communities in our region should create more opportunities and make better investments to make healthy choices easier, increasing healthy life expectancy for all of us."

The report said exercise and a good diet can protect people from non-communicable diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, diabetes, and even mental health disorders.