Far East and Australasia

This is a widely heterogeneous region. The combined effect of a falling birth rate and an increasing elderly population is a major consideration and the region contains some of the fastest ageing populations of the world.

An ageing population

Whilst some countries have well developed older peoples’ services and others are rapidly developing them, not all have the infrastructure to deal with the health and social care burden that an ageing population will bring. A combination of falling infant mortality due to improved public health measures, vaccination programmes and changing patterns of infectious diseases; plus falling birth rates, increasing numbers of women in work and improved medical care in younger adulthood is skewing the demography of this region towards old age while reducing the numbers of potential carers for the future.

Non-communicable diseases

Diabetes, hypertension and smoking are prevalent in the Far East and so the region is starting to see a rise in stroke and dementia. Several countries are strengthening their public health campaigns to educate the population to the dangers of obesity and the importance of exercise, screening for and management of diabetes and hypertension. 

Australia and New Zealand are seeing a similar development to the UK of the specialty of Acute Medicine.  Public Health issues are often similar to those facing the UK especially in metropolitan areas - e.g. an epidemic of diabetes, obesity, coronary artery disease,breast and lung cancer. Rural healthcare is an issue with vast distances involved (especially in Australia) and limited specialist medical provision.