Environmental Factors in Successful Aging: The Potential Impact of Air Pollution

摘要

Global demographic trends are coalescing around an unprecedented milestone in human history: It is estimated that by 2020,people over age 60 will for the first time outnumber childrenunder the age of 5 years old.1 Global fertility rates have fallen byhalf over the last half-century from an average of 5 children perwoman in 1960 to 2.5 today.2 In addition, major advances againstwhat were once the world’s top killers—infectious diseases andacute threats to child and maternal health—are allowing morepeople to live longer than ever before.3This demographic shift has sparked growing interest in howpeople age and, in particular, their capacity for what those in thegeriatrics field call “successful aging”—with vitality, resilience,and good health. Seen this way, the number of years lived is notas important as how many of those years can be lived free of disease and disability.