The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people is over 73 years old but with many diseases.

Theme of This year's International Day of Older Persons (October 1) is "Family and society should create conditions for the elderly to live happily, healthily and usefully."

The General Department of Population and Family Planning (Ministry of Health) forecasts that the number of elderly people in Vietnam will increase to 16.8 million by 2039 and reach 25.2 million by 2069.

Currently, the average life expectancy of Vietnamese people is 73.6 years old, it is noteworthy that Vietnamese women have a higher life expectancy than men. It is worth mentioning that on average, elderly people in Vietnam suffer from 3-4 diseases.

Vietnamese people have a relatively high life expectancy compared to countries with the same standard of living, but they live with many years of illness. On average, each Vietnamese person lives with illness for 10 years, which greatly affects the quality of life and reduces the number of healthy years of life...

According to Dr. Pham Vu Hoang, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Population and Family Planning, the issue of adapting to aging and taking care of the health of the elderly is always raised because Vietnam is currently one of the countries with the fastest aging population in the world.

Vietnam entered the aging phase in 2011 with people aged 65 and over accounting for 7% of the total population. In 2021, the number of elderly people in Vietnam accounted for 8.3% of the total population (8.16 million elderly people).

It is forecasted that Vietnam will enter the aging population period from 2036, when the proportion of the population aged 65 and over will reach 14.2% of the total population.

Dr. Pham Vu Hoang said that the time for Vietnam to move from the population aging stage to the old population stage is very short, about 25 years. Population aging brings both opportunities and challenges. In terms of opportunities, population aging can promote the development of areas such as insurance, banking, nutrition, tourism, technological innovation and the application of science and technology in production or management in the context of labor shortage.

However, population aging also poses serious challenges to economic growth, social security, labor, infrastructure design, especially in the field of health care. Elderly people often suffer from many non-communicable diseases that require lifelong treatment such as blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, hearing loss, sleep disorders, etc.

Medical experts say that in order for the elderly to live happily, healthily, and usefully, mental health care for the elderly needs to continue to receive more attention. At the same time, to improve the health of the elderly, disease prevention plays an important role, in which maintaining the habit of regular health check-ups, keeping a disease monitoring book, and adhering to taking medication as prescribed by the doctor are essential.

The theme of the 2023 Action Month "The elderly are promoted and fully cared for" has a very profound humanistic meaning, especially in the context of Vietnam being a country with a very rapid population aging rate, the elderly are increasingly numerous and are a resource that needs to be fully promoted, while a group of elderly people are facing the impacts of risks of old age.

Over the years, the Party and the State have always attached importance to, promoted the role of, and cared for and protected the elderly, including health care. Vietnam has a long-standing tradition of respecting and caring for the elderly. Many policies and programs for health care in particular and for the elderly in general have been issued and implemented by Vietnam.

Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017 of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam on population work in the new situation has set the goal of adapting to population aging. The Vietnam Population Strategy to 2030 once again reaffirms that goal to contribute to the country's rapid and sustainable development.