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Universal care under strain: navigating population ageing in Europe
Jones Charles H, Beitelshees Marie, Dolsten Mikael. Drug discovery today, 2026-07-21
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
Europe's ageing population is transforming universal healthcare from a financing challenge into a delivery-capacity challenge. Longer lives are increasingly accompanied by multimorbidity, polypharmacy, dementia, cardiometabolic disease, cancer, mobility loss and functional limitation, with rural regions facing the most rapidly ageing population and the weakest service infrastructure. Therapeutic innovations, including incretin-based metabolic therapies, immuno-oncology, antibody-drug conjugates and earlier detection technologies, may extend healthy ageing but will also increase demand for coordinated outpatient care, safe medication regimens, reimbursement discipline and interoperable data. This perspective outlines a 24-36-month European Union agenda: professionalize the long-term care workforce, embed pharmacist-led medication review, expand home and step-down care, and make shared discharge summaries, medication lists and care plans routine across settings.
Key findings
- Europe's ageing population is transforming universal healthcare from a financing challenge into a delivery-capacity challenge.
- Longer lives are increasingly accompanied by multimorbidity, polypharmacy, dementia, cardiometabolic disease, cancer, mobility loss and functional limitation, with rural regions facing the most rapidly ageing population and the weakest service infrastructure.
- Therapeutic innovations, including incretin-based metabolic therapies, immuno-oncology, antibody-drug conjugates and earlier detection technologies, may extend healthy ageing but will also increase demand for coordinated outpatient care, safe medication regimens, reimbursement discipline and interoperable data.
- This perspective outlines a 24-36-month European Union agenda: professionalize the long-term care workforce, embed pharmacist-led medication review, expand home and step-down care, and make shared discharge summaries, medication lists and care plans routine across settings.
Why it matters
This perspective describes how Europe's ageing population is straining healthcare delivery, with dementia among the conditions accompanying longer lives, and proposes a 24-36 month EU agenda including workforce and care coordination measures. It is a policy commentary and does not report any treatment, cure or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 30/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on institution's track record, so that was left out: it earned 29 of the 97 points we could judge it on, which is 30 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Drug discovery today) |
| Journal's citation record | 3 / 4 | Drug Discovery Today: journal h-index 250 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 0 / 7 | Cited 0 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 0 / 5 | 0.0 citations a year over 2 year(s) since 2026 |
| Impact for its field and year | 0 / 6 | Cited 0.0× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 0 / 6 | No other study in this library cites it |
| Still being cited | 0 / 4 | Cited 0 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 1 / 4 | Last-listed author Mikael Dolsten: h-index 10 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 0 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 0 institution(s) in 0 countries — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete) |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 42476293) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Points | 29 / 97 | Scored on 19 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 29 of the 97 points we could judge it on is 30 out of 100. |
| Total | 30 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Jones Charles, H., Marie, B., & Mikael, D. (2026). Universal care under strain: navigating population ageing in Europe. Drug discovery today. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2026.104743
Vancouver
Jones Charles H, Marie B, Mikael D. Universal care under strain: navigating population ageing in Europe. Drug discovery today. 2026. doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2026.104743. PMID: 42476293.
BibTeX
@article{jonescharles2026-42476293,
author = {Jones Charles, H. and Marie, Beitelshees and Mikael, Dolsten},
title = {{Universal care under strain: navigating population ageing in Europe}},
journal = {Drug discovery today},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1016/j.drudis.2026.104743},
pmid = {42476293},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2026.104743}
}