Active Aging: A Shift in the Paradigm

The 1997 Denver Summit of the Eight provided an opportunity to foster a shift in our thinking about what it means to be "elderly," to focus on incentives for fostering active aging, and to identify potential areas of international collaboration for future research and information sharing. The Summit also provided an opportunity to discuss strategies for ensuring that our pension and health care systems can be sustained in the face of increased demands resulting from aging populations. In addition, the leaders discussed ways to facilitate the transfer of information among developed and developing countries on aging-related issues. The paper was used as background information for this discussion. [17 PDF pages]