INTRA: Integrated Response of Health Care Systems to Rapid Populations Ageing

Rationale

As populations age and live longer, chronic diseases become increasingly prevalent. Older persons with complex pathologies and conditions will require multiple sources of care to meet their health care needs. They will need to depend on a health care delivery systems that can adequately address and reliably serve their multiple needs.

This will require management and delivery of health services to adopt a more holistic and integrated approach to health care - one that coordinates care services across setting and types of care.

What WHO is doing

Against this background, WHO developed a project entitled "Integrated Health Care Systems Response to Rapid Populations Ageing in Developing Countries - INTRA" in 2001. INTRA focus on assessing the role and preparedness of the Primary Health Care (PHC) sector to respond to population ageing, and to make recommendations aimed at improving the delivery of the PHC services to better serve older persons.

Through a series of empirical- based research INTRA, developed in three stages, investigates the nature and practice of primary health care services provision from three different perspectives - PHC users and non users, health care providers and policy makers.

• Stage I (INTRA I) implemented in 2001, adopted the use of quantitative research;
• Stage 2 (INTRA II) implemented in 2003-04, aimed at complementing INTRA I through the use of qualitative research;
• Stage 3 (INTRA III), due to be implemented this year (2005) will focus on investigating the health and non-health seeking behavior of the non-users of the PHC care services.

For more information on each of these stages please follow the links below:

• INTRA I project description
• INTRA II project description
• INTRA III project description