Ageing Care in the Community: Current Practices and Future Directions

The world population is ageing. A decline in fertility rates and an increase in life expectancy have caused general demographic changes throughout the world. Indeed, life expectancies at birth for women and men worldwide have increased, with the biggest projected percentage increase expected between 2019 and 2050 in East and South-East Asia as well as in Northern Africa and Western Asia in terms of the proportion of persons aged 80 or above (United Nations, 2020).

The Ageing Population in Hong Kong

Similar to other developed regions, the population in Hong Kong is facing a rapid ageing trend. This increasing trend from 2006 to 2016 outpaced that from 1996 to 2006, with the proportion of persons aged 65 and above rising from 10.1% in 1996 to 12.4% in 2006, and then to 16.6% in 2016 (Census and Statistics Department, 2018). Among older persons in 2016, 53.0% (0.62 million) were aged between 65 and 74, 17.7% (0.21 million) were aged 75 to 79, and 29.3% (0.34 million) were 80 or above (Census and Statistics Department, 2018). In fact, approximately one in every three older persons aged 65 lived to at least 80 years old, and the population of people aged 80 or over expanded significantly (Census and Statistics Department, 2018). This acceleration in the age of the population is primarily attributed to the post-war baby boomers entering old age.

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The Hong Kong Government’s Response to the Ageing Population

There are a few directives that have emanated from the Hong Kong Government which are aimed at the ageing population, including strengthening support for older persons and their caregivers living in the community, making use of technology and innovation to improve the quality of life and quality of care available to older people, improving the transitional care available to frail elders, and targeting public resources to help older persons in need while providing co-payment options and choices for those who can afford them under the principle of shared responsibility (Chief Secretary for Administration Office, 2017). The Chief Secretary for Administration went on to state: “With more cohorts of our population who will age with better education, in better health and with better financial means in future, [the Hong Kong Government] should give ageing a new definition” (2017, p. 2). To strengthen the community and social needs surrounding the ageing population, the then Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Mrs Carrie Lam, set out the following points in her 2017 Policy Address.

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This Book

This book is focused on the challenges in community care for the ageing population of Hong Kong. We, the editors of this book, have already discussed the relatively low level of healthcare expenditure in Hong Kong when compared to other developed countries, despite the Hong Kong Government’s heavy subsidies for medical care at the secondary and tertiary levels, in our first book, Community Care in Hong Kong: Current Practices, Practice-research Studies, and Future Directions (Tong and Fong, 2014). As the Hong Kong population is ageing, the growing number of patients with chronic diseases will likely constitute a greater burden to the public healthcare system, and it is not simply an issue of controlling costs or increasing resources (Leung, 2018).

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We end this book with a brief discussion on its limitations and the future directions to face the challenges arising from the ageing population. In short, cross-disciplinary collaborations and innovative studies are required, in view of the differences between the ever-changing generation of older persons and their counterparts in the future.


Kenneth Nai-kuen FONG, Kar-wai TONG
Editors