Speech by Dr. Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health, at the Duke-NUS Care Conference "Are Centenarians the Realisation of Successful Ageing: Insights from a Global Study", 7 December 2016

Members of Advisory Board, CARE Duke-NUS

Prof Patrick Casey, Senior Vice Dean for Research, Duke-NUS Medical School

A/Prof Angelique Chan, Executive Director, CARE Duke-NUS

Senior Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Heng Chee How, my parliamentary colleague

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

     Good morning! I am delighted to join you at this gathering of experts in a relatively new research field focusing on older adults. Indeed, this conference is timely as we are witnessing a global demographic shift as societies around the world are ageing rapidly.

A RAPIDLY AGEING WORLD

2.     Worldwide, our average life expectancy increased at one of the fastest pace in recent times. Between 2000 and 2015, our global average life expectancy increased by 5 years to 71.4 years^[1]. More people are expected to live beyond 65 years old and the number of seniors aged 80 years and above around the world is expected to reach 392 million by 2050^[2].

3.     Longevity is actually good news. It is a result of advancement in public health, medicine, science and technology. Ageing will only present itself as a worry when people lose their social or economic relevance as they age or if they live longer years in ill health and disability.

ORGANISING SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE

4.     Instead of worrying about ageing, the real challenge is how we, as a society, should evolve the way we organise ourselves to successfully engage an ageing population, and how we as individuals, are able to adapt and remain healthy and productive over a longer life span.

5.     Part of this adaptation comes from how we organise social and economic life so that we can unlock the promise of longevity for individuals and for society as a whole. With this in mind, the Ministerial Committee on Ageing launched the $3bn Action Plan for Successful Ageing last year. At the individual level, the Plan seeks to help everyone achieve positive ageing. We placed focus on creating economic, learning and social engagement opportunities to help seniors continue to learn, grow, contribute their knowledge and skills, and achieve their full potential over their longer live spans. We are also building a senior friendly city that encourages older Singaporeans to stay active and engaged.

ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

6.     Another part of this adaptation comes from new advances in knowledge, science and technology in helping individuals live longer years in good health, and overcome frailty.

7.     On this note, I am encouraged by the theme of this conference, “Are centenarians the realisation of successful ageing: Insights from a global study”. Through research and analysis on the biological, psychological and social domains of older cohorts, we could draw new knowledge and better understand the determinants of successful ageing. For example, results from the 5-Country Oldest Old Project^[3] which will be shared today, showed that the pace of increase in the number of centenarians varies among these five developed countries. This merits further research into the reasons behind this observation and to establish the factors that support successful ageing. Further evidence could then be applied to guide policy formulation and programme implementation that can better help our seniors age well. Research findings could also be used to better enable us refine our initiatives and policies relating to population ageing.

8.     We are already seeing research efforts in this area. For example, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the National University Health Systems (NUHS) launched the SG90 Longevity Cohort Study last year. This study aims to understand factors that help older seniors remain healthy and active. Participants receive health screenings to measure their biological markers. These could include brain scans, blood samples to check immune function, nutrition status as well as inflammatory markers. I understand that the lead investigator, Professor Chong Yap Seng, will be sharing some of the findings this morning and we will get to hear first-hand, ways to mitigate diseases that plague old age and extend our healthy lifespan.

ENABLING INNOVATION GRANT

9.     Even as we seek new knowledge, we should further advance multi-disciplinary translational research and translate good ideas or research findings around the world into actionable initiatives and pilots that can positively change the live of seniors here.

10.     Hence, under the Action Plan for Successful Ageing, we have set aside up to $200 million to establish a National Innovation Challenge (NIC) to seek innovative solutions to help seniors age well. So far, we have launched three grant calls for ideas in raising productivity of home care, making workplaces ageless, preventing cognitive decline and caring for seniors with dementia in the community. To date, we have awarded close to $8 million to four multi-disciplinary teams under the Care-at-home Innovation Grant. This first grant call under the NIC aims to foster partnerships between home care and technological solutions providers to co-create solutions in improving the productivity of home care. Some interesting projects include an e-marketplace to match volunteers to care for seniors and a call centre service that will provide response to seniors in need. We are in the midst of evaluating the proposals for the remaining two grants and results are expected to be announced in 2017.

11.     Moving forward, we want to encourage more multi-disciplinary innovations that can better help our seniors age well with dignity. On this note, I am pleased to share that we have recently launched our fourth grant call for innovative assistive technology to help seniors age well in place. This Grant Call aims to crowd source innovative, game changing solutions that can help seniors overcome their disability and lead a more independent life. We are looking for new assistive devices that are easy to use, safe, cost effective and can effectively improve seniors’ function. Research may include redesign or use of new materials to enhance the capabilities of assistive devices and make them more affordable. For example, we know in Brazil there’s a social enterprise Solar Ear, has created a low cost hearing aid using solar-powered chargers to help more people living in developing countries hear again.

12.     Through this grant call, we hope to attract multi-disciplinary research proposals that are scaleable, sustainable and transform the way we see assistive devices today. More importantly, we want more seniors to benefit from these innovations and realise their aspirations to age in place independently. Indeed, when we were seeking and collating feedback on the Action Plan, we engaged closed to 4,000 seniors, many seniors tell us their aspiration is to age in place with their loved ones in the community.

13.     In closing, let me take this opportunity to thank CARE and all those involved in organising this conference for leading this important initiative. We look forward to the learning points and key takeaways that would be useful in our work in creating a Nation for All Ages. I wish you a productive three days ahead. Thank you.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH

^[1] http://www.who.int/gho/mortality_burden_disease/life_tables/situation_trends_text/en/

^[2] The number of seniors aged 80 years and above is expected to triple by 2050. United Nations World Population Ageing Report 2013.

^[3] This is a study involving five countries. They include Denmark, France, Japan, Switzerland and Sweden.