Ren Yuling delivered a keynote speech at the launching ceremony of the China Aging Development Foundation Elderly Health Project.
According to the data of the seventh national census, the population aged 60 and over in China is 264.02 million, accounting for 18.70% (of which the population aged 65 and over is 190.64 million, accounting for 13.50%); compared with 2010, the proportion of the population aged 60 and over increased by 5.44 percentage points. According to relevant forecasts, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the national elderly population will exceed 300 million.
The surging wave of aging is having a multifaceted impact on our society.
What is the current state of life for the elderly in China? What are the challenges? What issues should be paid attention to when paying attention to the health of the elderly? What opportunities does biotechnology give to the cause of aging health? Recently, at the launching ceremony of the China Aging Development Foundation Elderly Health Project held in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, Ren Yuling, member of the Standing Committee of the Ninth and Tenth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, former counselor of the State Council, and famous economist, attended the event and accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China City Daily.
China City Daily: You have been re-elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for two consecutive terms and have worked in the Counselor's Office of the State Council for a long time, visiting and researching all parts of the country every year, writing a large number of suggestions and reports, and promoting the implementation of many policies to help economic and social development. You yourself are now part of the aging population, in your opinion, what are the challenges facing China after the arrival of an aging society?
Ren Yuling: When a large proportion of the elderly population appears in many developed countries like China, it has developed for nearly 30 years and the per capita income has reached tens of thousands of US dollars. When China entered the aging society, the per capita income was still far from reaching this level. In particular, the rural elderly in some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities only have a few tens of yuan per person per month, which has a very limited effect on improving their quality of life.
For a long time, Chinese society has pursued the traditional concept of family pension, and "raising children and preventing the elderly" is a moral creed that has been Chinese for thousands of years. However, at present, China's urban family population is in an "inverted pyramid" structure of "four two one" ("four" refers to the one-child family with 4 elderly people who need to be supported, "two" refers to 2 husband and wife as laborers, and "one" refers to the family having 1 child to raise), resulting in the current situation that the elderly lack the care of their descendants, relatively lonely, and there are many empty nesters in the family. In the vast rural areas, as young and middle-aged laborers go out to work and their children go to school in the city, the survival status of a large number of left-behind elderly people is also very worrying.
When the huge number of elderly people encounters the status quo of social development before getting rich, China's pension industry and industry urgently need to take the road of high-quality development. In recent years, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the construction and development of the old-age cause, and have issued a series of documents to support the construction of nursing homes; for entrepreneurs and investors who participate in investing in the elderly, not only give preferential land prices, but also have certain financial subsidies that are particularly inclined.
However, from the perspective of operation and development, the current development of China's pension industry is not very ideal, it is difficult for ordinary residents to enter cheap public nursing homes, and private nursing homes are biased towards high-end operation and the price is not low. In order to maximize the interests, some pension projects have disguised real estate after receiving preferential land prices and related subsidies, which has also indirectly raised the entry threshold. At the same time, there are generally various medical needs of the elderly, but at present, there is a general lack of medical and nursing conditions in pension places or poor combination of medical and nursing conditions. In particular, at present, many nursing homes do not accept the elderly with disabilities, which causes a heavy burden to the families of such groups, and also affects the quality of life of the elderly and disabled.
To solve the problem of old-age care for China's elderly population, the development of community old-age care is very critical. However, for now, China's community pension is still in a low-level operation stage, mainly relying on the government to lead some basic services, and there is little social capital to enter. In the future, it is necessary to establish a feasible set of market-oriented operation mechanisms under the guidance of the government.
China City Daily: The health of the elderly is not only related to the quality of life of the elderly and the happiness index of thousands of households, but also an important part of building a harmonious society. What suggestions do you have for improving the health of the elderly?
Ren Yuling: To improve the health of the elderly, we must first vigorously popularize common sense such as health nutrition and medication and immunization. Concern about the health of the elderly should be mainly to prevent the occurrence of diseases, but subject to their own conditions, most of the elderly are difficult to obtain health, nutrition, medication and immunization knowledge in time. This knowledge is not complicated, such as pathogenic microorganisms, six major nutrients, immune principles and common sense of antimicrobials, etc., and plays an important role in maintaining health in the elderly. Therefore, relevant medical institutions and communities must strengthen the popularization and publicity of such knowledge to help the elderly prevent the occurrence of diseases.
Second, we must attach importance to the adjustment and management of food structure. Nowadays, there are many obese, hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, hypertensive population and cardiovascular disease patients in China, and it is more common in the elderly. The reason is mainly caused by the improper structure of food: first, China's edible oil consumption is more than three times higher than in the 1990s; second, China's animal protein supply has greatly increased, from 17% in 1982 to 56%. Therefore, it is of great significance to reduce the proportion of oil and animal protein in the future food structure.
Third, it is necessary to strictly control the listing of food additives and strengthen the management of their dosage. The incidence of cancer in China is 40% higher than the world average, and the mortality rate is 50% higher than the world average; about 10,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every day in the country, and about 7 people are diagnosed with cancer every minute; more than 70 disabled children are born every day, which is equivalent to 3 every hour; the infertility rate has risen from 3% in the past to 12.5%... The results of these conditions are related to environmental pollution, the proliferation of growth promoters and food additives. Now there are reinforcement agents, whitening agents, thickeners, tackifiers, flavor enhancers, blowing agents, preservatives, bulking agents, etc. on the market, which should be used and which should not be used? All of them need to be strictly rectified and controlled by relevant departments. For example, the aminourea formed after hydrolysis of azoformamide in flour gluten enhancer is a carcinogen, which has been banned in many countries, and can still be seen and bought in the Market in China.
Fourth, we must vigorously promote the health care culture and rehabilitation means of traditional Chinese medicine. In the thousands of years of Chinese civilization history, acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, gua sha, tuina, massage, small needle knife and 12,807 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine materials have made important contributions to the maintenance of people's health and have also played a unique role in the fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic. With people's understanding of antimicrobial resistance, many countries in the world have begun to pay attention to the role of traditional Chinese medicine. For the sake of the health of the elderly, we should pay more attention to the development of traditional Chinese medicine, train more Chinese medicine talents, and open more Traditional Chinese medicine health care hospitals.
Fifth, it is necessary to establish a mechanism for the use of life support systems to ensure the fair and equitable use of national medical expenses. With the development of medical technology, most of China's hospitals have established a perfect life support system, which has extended the lives of patients to a certain extent and given many people the opportunity to wait for further treatment. However, the cost of use of the life support system is very high, and its operation is bound to occupy a lot of medical resources. Therefore, at a time when medical resources are still tight, it is very necessary to establish a scientific life support system use mechanism. The hospital or health department shall set up a special life support system evaluation committee, which is composed of experts from various disciplines with rich experience. The life support system can only be used after the evaluation committee has systematically studied and evaluated the patient's situation and agreed to it. In this way, it can not only avoid the unreasonable occupation of existing medical resources, but also ensure the fair and just operation of the life support system.
China City Daily: You have long been concerned about the development of the field of biotechnology, as early as 1981, you published an article entitled "The 21st Century Will Be the Century of Biotechnology" in Guangming Daily, and in 1983, you contributed to the establishment of the China Biotechnology Development Center. Today, biotechnology is fully impacting our lives, and what benefits will it bring to the health of the elderly?
Ren Yuling: In recent years, China's biotechnology has achieved rapid development under the vigorous promotion of the China Biotechnology Development Center, such as in the α interferons, interleukins, insulin, enzyme preparations and gene sequencing, stem cell research and other aspects have made remarkable achievements. These advances in biotechnology have brought new dawn to improve the health of the elderly.
With the development of biotechnology, the scientific community's more systematic analysis of life will further promote the development of the cause of aging health. Gene technology and single-cell technology have promoted the correlation analysis of the cross-scale association of life by relevant personnel: in 2018, the Cancer Gene Map in the United States was successfully mapped, which conducted an in-depth analysis of how, where, and why cancer is produced; there is also the drawing of the cell map, which comprehensively studies the type, morphology, spatial location, and function of human cells. These studies will greatly improve the level of human cognition of life and provide a more scientific and advanced theoretical basis for the prevention and treatment of diseases in the elderly.
At the same time, the development of technologies such as synthetic biology, gene editing, tissue and organ fabrication, and brain-computer interfaces has increased the ability of related institutions to transform organisms. By modifying and regenerating related organs and cells, the occurrence of disease can be effectively blocked and the parts of the damaged body can be appropriately replaced. Such as the use of yeast to synthesize cannabinoids, the use of gene synthesis to manufacture diabetes and leukemia drugs, stem cells and 3D bioprinting technology to promote organ reconstruction. The promotion of these biotechnologies will play a significant role in improving and improving the health status of the elderly.
It is worth mentioning that at present, genetic testing, targeted drugs, spectral anti-cancer technologies, etc. have been approved, and have played an important role in clinical treatment, and are bound to make greater contributions to improving and maintaining the health of the elderly population.
On October 14, the National Conference on Aging was held in Beijing, proposing to focus on the "urgent difficulties and expectations" of the majority of the elderly in social security, pension, medical and other livelihood issues, deepen relevant reforms, improve the policies, systems and working mechanisms for the elderly, and promote the high-quality development of the cause and industry of the elderly; actively develop community pensions, better play the role of social forces, and meet the multi-level and diversified needs of the elderly; strengthen the prevention and early intervention of geriatric diseases, and build a care system for the disabled elderly.
The country's emphasis on the elderly population has filled the high-quality development of China's aging health undertakings with opportunities. It is believed that in the future, with the joint efforts of governments at all levels and social forces, China's aging health cause will surely usher in the spring of development. (Photo courtesy of respondents)
Reporter: Song Hao
Original title: China's aging health cause ushered in the dawn of challenges - visit to Ren Yuling, former counselor and economist of the State Council