1. Post-graduate student of the Department of Healthcare Organization and Public Health (basic) of the National Research University "Belgorod State University", specialty gerontology and geriatrics
There were 703 million persons aged 65 years or over in the world in 2019. The number of older persons is projected to double to 1.5 billion in 2050. All countries face major challenges to ensure that their health and social systems are ready to make the most of this demographic shift. The term ‘ageism’ describes prejudice against the elderly, defining it as “a process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old”. Ageism has been shown to have significant impact on our participation in society, health and longevity. A systematic review of highlight publications regarding the aging statistics, ageism and its health outcome in different countries was made from the Web of Pubmed and Google scholar. Recent data from 20,788 adults aged 16–64 from 30 countries around the world revealed that 23% of the respondents agreed that older people are treated unfairly and that globally 60% of respondents reported that older adults are not well respected. Across the 28 countries in the European region, 35% of people said they had experienced “unfair” treatment because of their age. Socially ingrained ageism can become self-fulfilling by promoting in older people stereotypes of social isolation, physical and cognitive decline, lack of physical activity and economic burden. It is essential to the development of a tool to measure ageism globally and help to identify key research gaps.