Residents of smog-hit Beijing have resorted to black humour to cope with gruelling conditions. (AAP) Source: AAP
Professor Li is an expert on public health in China. She has recently edited a book titled Urbanisation and Public health in China. Chinas rise as a major economic powerhouse has coincided with rapid health transition, from having a high burden of communicable diseases and undernutrition to non-communicable diseases now dominating the health challenges. Understandably air pollution has been the most visible and talked about public health issue for which there is no quick fix. The focus of the next five-year plan should also be on improving poor diets and tobacco use, lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol through behaviour modification. Prof.Li told SBS Radio Mandarin,The elderly population in China is increasing and the proportion of those over 65 years has almost doubled in the past three decades. This imposes a big challenge on the pension system and has significant implications on the demand of the countrys health system. However, the rural areas are carrying a disproportional burden of the aging population as young people have been pulled to cities and major towns for work. The rural elderly and poor do not have adequate access to quality health services and care due to the inequitable distribution of resources, which tends to favour those living in urban areas. It is encouraging that the Chinese government is committed to health reform and the establishment of a new old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents. There is more that needs to be done in the new five-year plan, such as improving long-term care in rural China to protect the elderly and to close the urban-rural disparities.
Professor Li is an expert on public health in China. She has recently edited a book titled Urbanisation and Public health in China. Chinas rise as a major economic powerhouse has coincided with rapid health transition, from having a high burden of communicable diseases and undernutrition to non-communicable diseases now dominating the health challenges. Understandably air pollution has been the most visible and talked about public health issue for which there is no quick fix. The focus of the next five-year plan should also be on improving poor diets and tobacco use, lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol through behaviour modification. Prof.Li told SBS Radio Mandarin,The elderly population in China is increasing and the proportion of those over 65 years has almost doubled in the past three decades. This imposes a big challenge on the pension system and has significant implications on the demand of the countrys health system. However, the rural areas are carrying a disproportional burden of the aging population as young people have been pulled to cities and major towns for work. The rural elderly and poor do not have adequate access to quality health services and care due to the inequitable distribution of resources, which tends to favour those living in urban areas. It is encouraging that the Chinese government is committed to health reform and the establishment of a new old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents. There is more that needs to be done in the new five-year plan, such as improving long-term care in rural China to protect the elderly and to close the urban-rural disparities.
