Healthy ageing as a visible public health activity and governmental responsibility. Health promotion for older people in the Czech Republic. Institutional and financial dimension

Agnieszka  Sowa; Anna Szetela

Titles

Abstract

The health status of the Czech population has been improving over the past decades. The life expectancy increased from 67.6 for men/75.5 for women in 1990 to 75.9 for men/82.1 for women in 2014, becoming one of the highest in the Central and Eastern European region. Still, the older population faces many health risks related to obesity, high alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and smoking. Over half of the population above the age of 65 suffers from long-lasting illnesses and over half of the population above the age of 75 reports limitation in activities.

Health promotion for older people in the Czech Republic is growing in importance. There have been nationwide health promotion programmes against the main civilisation diseases, which older people could benefit from. In recent years two strategic programmes: the National Strategy for Health Protection and Promotion and Disease Prevention and the National Action Plan for Positive Ageing for the period of 2013–2017 came into existence with healthy ageing being an important target for both of them.

Health promotion policy is strongly centralised, supervised on the one hand by the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Public Health and on the other hand by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. At the same time, the activity of local governments and – especially – non-governmental organisations is important in supporting visible health promotion programmes for older people at the local level.

The health status of the Czech population has been improving over the past decades. The life expectancy increased from 67.6 for men/75.5 for women in 1990 to 75.9 for men/82.1 for women in 2014, becoming one of the highest in the Central and Eastern European region. Still, the older population faces many health risks related to obesity, high alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and smoking. Over half of the population above the age of 65 suffers from long-lasting illnesses and over half of the population above the age of 75 reports limitation in activities.

Health promotion for older people in the Czech Republic is growing in importance. There have been nationwide health promotion programmes against the main civilisation diseases, which older people could benefit from. In recent years two strategic programmes: the National Strategy for Health Protection and Promotion and Disease Prevention and the National Action Plan for Positive Ageing for the period of 2013–2017 came into existence with healthy ageing being an important target for both of them.

Health promotion policy is strongly centralised, supervised on the one hand by the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Public Health and on the other hand by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. At the same time, the activity of local governments and – especially – non-governmental organisations is important in supporting visible health promotion programmes for older people at the local level.

Keywords

public health, Health Promotion for Older People, healthy ageing, central government, local governments, non-governmental organisations, Czech Republic

References

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Information

Information: Public Health and Governance, 2017, Volume 15, Issue 1, pp. 85 - 95

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20842627OZ.17.009.6235

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Healthy ageing as a visible public health activity and governmental responsibility. Health promotion for older people in the Czech Republic. Institutional and financial dimension

English:

Healthy ageing as a visible public health activity and governmental responsibility. Health promotion for older people in the Czech Republic. Institutional and financial dimension

Authors

Agnieszka Sowa

Department of Social Policy, Institute of Labour and Social Studies, Warsaw, Poland

Anna Szetela

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2247-1503

Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland

Published at: 30.01.2017

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Percentage share of authors:

Agnieszka Sowa (Author) - 50%

Anna Szetela (Author) - 50%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

View count: 2243

Number of downloads: 1549

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