The trend of population aging and planning of health services for the elderly: A review study

The growing population of the elderly has become one of the serious challenges in health systems. The purpose of this study is to provide a picture of the growth of the elderly population in Iran and worldwide in order to set policies to provide health services for this category of the population. This is a review study about aging. Relevant studies available on EMBASE, Scopus, PubMed /Medline, Google scholar were identified and used. In the next step, screening was conducted regarding the inclusion and exclusion criteria, in three phases (according to the title, abstract and original paper) and data extraction on the remaining articles was performed. After searching, screening and quality assessment studies, related articles Showed that the world population is rapidly aging.It is expected from about10.5 % to about 21.8 % in 2007, will rise in 2050. It is expected that in 2050, the elderlypopulation will reach 21 % of the world population. Regarding the increasing growth of the elderly population in our country, maintaining and improving the health and quality of life in old age is more important than ever. Therefore, it is suggested that policy-making be conducted to ensure the health of the elderly and to improve their lifestyle, and planning in this regard should be one of the main priorities of the welfare and health system of the country.