Dhakal Usha, Briceño Emily, Sharma Uttam, Bogati Umesh, Sharma Abha, Shrestha Lochana, Ghimire Dirgha, Mendes de Leon Carlos F
Department of Oncology, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC USA.
Present Address: Department of Global Health, Georgetown University School of Health, Washington, DC USA.
Discov Public Health. 2024;21(1):256. doi: 10.1186/s12982-024-00382-9. Epub 2024 Dec 30.
Nepal, like other low- and middle-income countries, is experiencing a rapid increase in the number of older adults and the rate of aging in the population. This has increased the number of older adults with age-associated chronic illnesses, which in turn will escalate the demand for specialized healthcare and long-term care in Nepal. However, very little is known regarding the current healthcare system and health policies for older adults in Nepal. In this paper, we aimed to advance this understanding.
We reviewed the existing literature on the health, healthcare system, and policies related to older adults in Nepal.
Our findings revealed that older adults have a high prevalence of chronic conditions such as cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and chronic kidney diseases, and the number of patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias is on the rise. Additionally, there is a decline in historical family caregiving for several reasons such as international migration of offspring, and the country currently lacks a skilled geriatric workforce and formal long-term care support and services (LTSS). Together, this has created a challenge in adequately meeting the health and care needs of the older population. Findings also indicated that several geriatric health policies exist in the country, which ensure primarily free healthcare services for older adults. However, economic constraints limit the financial resources to implement these policies, build appropriate care facilities, and improve access and utilization.
Therefore, the government must develop sustainable financing to adequately provide quality healthcare and LTSS for older adults as the population ages.
与其他低收入和中等收入国家一样，尼泊尔的老年人数量正在迅速增加，人口老龄化速度也在加快。这使得患有与年龄相关的慢性疾病的老年人数量增加，进而将提高尼泊尔对专业医疗保健和长期护理的需求。然而，对于尼泊尔目前针对老年人的医疗保健系统和卫生政策，人们知之甚少。在本文中，我们旨在增进这方面的了解。
我们回顾了尼泊尔有关老年人健康、医疗保健系统及政策的现有文献。
我们的研究结果显示，老年人中患心血管疾病、肌肉骨骼疾病和慢性肾病等慢性病的比例很高，患阿尔茨海默病及相关痴呆症的患者数量也在增加。此外，由于子女国际移民等多种原因，传统家庭护理有所减少，该国目前缺乏熟练的老年护理人员以及正规的长期护理支持和服务（LTSS）。这些因素加在一起，给充分满足老年人口的健康和护理需求带来了挑战。研究结果还表明，该国存在多项老年健康政策，这些政策主要确保为老年人提供免费医疗服务。然而，经济限制制约了实施这些政策、建设适当护理设施以及改善服务可及性和利用率所需的财政资源。
因此，随着人口老龄化，政府必须制定可持续的融资方案，以便为老年人充分提供优质医疗保健和长期护理支持服务。
