The industrial countries are in a process of significant population ageing, which presents challenges especially for the health system due to increased pressure on budgets. The challenge for the future is to improve functional health among today's elderly on the one hand and to promote healthier life trajectories for future elderly cohorts on the other hand. The health care system should therefore develop from a solely repair to a more preventive system. Life-long prevention should focus on established risk behaviors like physical inactivity or unhealthy diet. Active ageing can indeed enhance quality of life as people age. Preventive interventions should slow the aging rates and, as a major goal, compress the phase of high morbidity before death. Beside the main theme – prevention and intervention – the purpose of this meeting is: to make the general public more aware of the problems of degenerative diseases, to promote greater communication between basic scientists and clinicians and to stimulate translational research.

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