A national center under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was honored Friday with a public health award by the World Health Organization (WHO) for its contribution to promoting healthcare for the elderly.

The WHO awarded the 2023 public health prizes and awards to individuals and institutions worldwide at the ongoing 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva.

China's National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention (NCNCD) was presented the "His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Prize for Research in Health Care for the Elderly and in Health Promotion" as the center has hosted a department dedicated to the health of older people since 2013 and "delivers a broad range of programs and activities that advance health promotion" for the group, said the WHO.

The major work of the center includes better understanding the causes of morbidity and mortality through national surveillance for noncommunicable diseases, surveys, death registration and research, promoting health literacy and evidence-based policies via tailored programs, and capacity-building of 2,000 primary healthcare staff.

It has launched a senior-specific toolkit and a health advocacy week for the elderly and also initiated an innovative project to improve the mental and cognitive health of more than half a million older people in urban and rural areas.

"The Chinese often say that filial devotion is the most important of all virtues. Respecting and loving older people has always been a traditional virtue of the Chinese people for thousands of years," NCNCD Director Wu Jing said at the award ceremony.

Wu noted that great importance has been attached by the Chinese government to elderly health, which has implemented the healthy aging strategy and integrated the concept of healthy aging into the entire process of social and economic development.

Dr Abla Mehio Sibai, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, was also awarded the prize for her "outstanding contribution to older people's health in Lebanon and the region, developing a holistic approach to the promotion of healthy aging."

The award of the State of Kuwait Health Promotion Foundation is set for those who "have made an outstanding contribution to research in the areas of health care for the elderly and in health promotion."

Kuwait's Health Minister Dr Ahmad Al-Awadhi told the World Health Assembly that he hopes the award will "serve as an incentive for more innovation and contributions to promote global solidarity to safeguard the rights of the elderly to healthcare, in our joint effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals."