About Liz Seegert
Liz Seegert is an independent health journalist and AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. She covers older adults, baby boomers, health policy, and social determinants of health, as well as many other health issues. Her bylines include stories for PBS/NextAvenue.org. the American Journal of Nursing, TIME Health, Medscape, Consumer Reports, and Medical Economics, as well as dozens of other trade and mainstream media. Her articles have been syndicated in Forbes.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant, the Saturday Evening Post and other major outlets.
Cities are great places to grow old, say aging and health policy experts, but most urban areas are not well-prepared for the surge in aging populations. Urban centers are already home to 54 percent of the general population and 56 percent of the 65-plus population in OECD nations. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Most of this increase is projected to occur in Asia and Africa. But many of those cities are not yet age-friendly.
Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, New York City’s deputy mayor of health and human services, described efforts to make New York City a more age-friendly metropolis. There are currently 1.4 million New Yorkers over age 60; by 2030, that is expected to increase to about 1.8 million, or one-fifth of the city’s population.
“New York has always been a good place to age, and has become even more so over the past decade” she said. New York signed on to the World Health Organization’s Global Age-Friendly Cities Project in 2007 – a model that creates environments to improve healthy and active aging. Continue reading →
Liz Seegert is an independent health journalist and AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. She covers older adults, baby boomers, health policy, and social determinants of health, as well as many other health issues. Her bylines include stories for PBS/NextAvenue.org. the American Journal of Nursing, TIME Health, Medscape, Consumer Reports, and Medical Economics, as well as dozens of other trade and mainstream media. Her articles have been syndicated in Forbes.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant, the Saturday Evening Post and other major outlets.