Hong Kong is increasingly being urged to develop a comprehensive population policy. Academics, policymakers and business leaders warn that rapid ageing, low fertility and a shrinking labour force threaten the city’s competitiveness, and call for more decisive government intervention. Most such calls converge around two familiar strategies: encouraging Hong Kong women to have more children…
Hong Kong’s housing authorities will expand the use of smart technologies, such as door sensors, in-home fall detectors and stair climbers, to enhance safety and convenience for elderly residents at public estates as the city’s population ages. Michael Hong Wing-kit, deputy director of housing overseeing estate management, said a pilot scheme to install sensors, which…
A 90-year-old man from northern China, who has been travelling across the country in his van with his wife for the past two decades, has captured significant attention on social media. Wang Ruisen, from Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, bought his first van in 2003 to fulfil his dream of a…
Getting up to pee at night – nocturia – sometimes happens because of drinking alcohol, being on certain medications, or simply drinking too much water before bed. It can rarely be a sign of diabetes, high blood pressure, bladder or prostate problems, or heart disease; though the NHS stresses most cases aren’t anything to worry…
Hong Kong lawmakers are calling for the expansion of pilot schemes to identify and support elderly residents living alone or with a spouse in ageing districts, following two recent cases in which skeletal remains were found in public flats in Kwai Tsing. Some legislators on Thursday highlighted existing gaps in the city’s social safety net…
President Donald Trump briefly lost track of the room Wednesday, searching for a GOP lawmaker whose bill he was signing while the congressman stood inches behind him. Reps. Derrick Van Orden and Mike Bost were already flanking the podium when the 79-year-old president strolled up without so much as a glance at either of them….
Sporting a hot pink blazer and pineapple sunglasses, Judy Ellison reckons colour is the key to fashion. The 89-year-old glamour queen, who once ran fashion events in Dubbo, is not prepared to hang up her hues just because she’s now living in aged care. “You’ve got to work the colour,” she said. “You’ve just got…
Hong Kong’s Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing has announced dozens of measures to promote the “silver economy” and address the needs of the city’s ageing population. These cover five main areas: boosting consumption, developing tailor-made products, promoting quality assurance of “silver” products, strengthening financial and insurance protection, and encouraging older residents to re-enter the…
IC declines with age Using clinical assessment tools, we developed an IC score that represents combined age-related decline in five domains: cognition; locomotion; sensory (vision and hearing); psychological; and vitality (Methods) (Fig. 1a). IC scores ranged from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating the best possible health outcome and 0 representing the worst. We examined…
Widow Law Wai-ho, 82, lives alone in Hong Kong and worries that no one will be there to help if anything happens to her. Law recalled her helplessness when she fell on the street and could not get up until a security guard arrived and took her to hospital, where she spent a week with…