New ways to attain a longer life

BY JOAQUIN ORAMAS

PROBLEMS related to longevity, life expectancy and aging currently constitute one of the main priorities in the world. Measures that contribute to solving those problems are providing greater possibilities for a long life with quality and even the aspiration of living to 120 years.

Reflecting on this subject, Professor Cosme Ordoñez, director of Havana’s Plaza Polyclinic, explains how promoting attention to people in the so-called Third Age is being efficiently developed in Cuba, becoming an example in the fight for a healthy longevity.

The scientific work being undertaken by Ordoñez won him the World Health Organization Social Medicine Award in 1990. Relating the results of attention to nearly 20,000 patients under the polyclinic’s care, he expresses a fundamental concept: "In order for there to be healthy longevity and life expectancy, there must be a certain standard of living provided by the state in education, health, culture, sports and social security."

He adds, "lifestyle, or the sphere of interaction between the individual, the family and the community, guarantees quality of life."

Professor Ordoñez recalls that in 1974, when he took over the polyclinic’s directorship, persons over 60 comprised 17% of its clientele. The strategies that the medical staff developed were directed at reducing adult and infant mortality rates.

"Now we can say that the over-60 adult population constitutes 26% of the population attended by the clinic, and of that percentage, 22% are over 80," he says. "We also have 94 individuals who are over 90, among them three who are over 100."

"Ever since we came to the polyclinic 30 years ago, we have prioritized the battle for the health of those in the Third Age," he says. "Following the ideas of our president to fight for excellence in services, teaching and research, we have prioritized a strategy: we call it behavioral health."

What is behavioral health?

"It is the response of the individual, the family and the community to life and lifestyle," the professor says. "We are thinking in the present, in the changes underway in teaching, services, research... incorporating elements and principles of the system and the technology of secondary and tertiary attention."

He stresses the importance of preventative medicine and, in that respect, notes that "while we need to know how to do a thrombolysis or some medical intervention, it is even more important to be aware that we have to fight for the technology and principles of primary health care so that patients do not suffer from preventable illnesses."

"That can be achieved by placing emphasis on the promotion of health and risk factors," he added. "There is a very important concept related to the struggle to reach the age of 120, which scientifically is a proposed reality – we are battling to achieve an active aging process."

How do you define an active aging process?

"The WHO has defined it as the process of optimizing opportunities to fight for health, for active participation in life, and for the security of achieving quality of life with aging," he said.

"This battle begins fundamentally at the point of fertilization, the control of pre-conception risks, attention to the pregnancy, birth and post-natal attention, with extraordinary importance given to breastfeeding until the age of four months.

"There is one fundamental aspect: the family and its role in that process of active aging. That’s why the Cuban program gives comprehensive attention to the family via the family doctor and nurse system. A pediatrician, obstetrician, gynecologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, university nurse and a social worker constitute a multi-disciplinary team that we call the Basic Work Group. Its purpose is to support the work of doctors and nurses in this effort to do whatever is necessary at every moment to avoid or postpone damage."

What do you mean postpone damage?

"Human beings are dependant on the reproduction of cells, homeostasis and the condition of the principal organs of defense, which are the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and blood and lymphatic systems.

"In our comprehensive attention to the individual, the family and the community, if we can continue postponing the damage that alters those life-giving components, then we are achieving a postponement and healthy active aging," Professor Ordoñez explained.

One priority in the polyclinic’s labors this year is the strategy of behavioral health, given that there are conditions in Cuba to develop it.