(Photo: Xinhua)

BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's National Health Commission and seven other authorities on Friday jointly issued the country's first guideline on improving the elderly care system.

The guideline requires that over 80 percent of the country's general hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes and primary-level healthcare institutions are age-friendly by 2022.

More than half of China's secondary and tertiary general hospitals, which offer a larger number of beds and more comprehensive medical services in the country's three-tier hospital grading system, should have geriatrics departments by 2022, according to the guideline.

The average life expectancy of Chinese people was 77 years in 2018, while research showed that the healthy life expectancy was 68.7 years.

"As many as 75 percent of aged people have at least one chronic disease and more than 40 million senior citizens are totally or partially disabled," said Wang Haidong, an official with the National Health Commission, at a press conference Friday.