The success of pilot community programmes to improve general health or eradicate diseases suggests that viable responses to the challenge are available. Programmes for the prevention of heart disease, such as North Karelian Finland and the Kilkenny Health Project in Ireland, have managed to change not just individual behaviour but the behaviour and outlook of the whole community. These programmes involve women and encourage them to be responsible for their own health. They also educate women in their roles as carers for children and elderly parents and as those responsible for nutrition and lifestyle standards in the home. In particular, there is an urgent need to address the needs of women in poverty or social or physical isolation, women with poor education and women of ethnic minorities.
All groups can seek to involve women in developing health policies more proactively.
The political weight of the ageing population, for women especially, will grow as awareness of the special health needs of mid-life and older women spreads. Professional health care organisations can work with practitioners to improve their understanding of women's health needs and promote greater equity in medical treatment for women. Academic medicine can expand its focus on women's health research and train a new generation of health care practitioners to understand and treat the needs of the aging. The media can contribute to bringing health and lifestyle messages to women and their doctors, while reinforcing the importance of research in women's health issues.