A/HRC/18/37 upon their right to health. Examples include restrictions on the autonomy of older persons in terms of definitions of capacity without an individual determination. The obligation to protect deals with States’ duty to prevent third parties, such as corporations, from interfering directly or indirectly with the right to health. This may be relevant, for example, where there is systematic abuse of the elderly in private long-term care facilities. Finally, the obligation to fulfil requires States to adopt appropriate legislative, administrative, budgetary, judicial, promotional and other measures to fully realize the right to health. 24. According to general comment No. 14, the right to health contains both freedoms and entitlements. The freedoms include the right to make independent decisions about one’s health, which is to say freedom from State interference. For older persons, freedoms regard issues such as informed consent, autonomy and guardianship. Entitlements, which concern positive obligations of the State may, for example, include the provision of primary health care and social protection which recognizes and takes into account age-related elements, States should recognize that ageing is a lifelong process; State policy and legislation should reflect this reality. Investment in health services should be made at various stages of the life course, when risks to well-being and windows of opportunity are greatest.16 25. Under the right-to-health framework, health facilities, goods and services should be made available, accessible, affordable, acceptable and be of good quality for older persons. Availability refers to the fact that functioning public health and health-care facilities, goods and services, as well as programmes, have to be available in sufficient quantity. In many cases, older persons are affected by selective unavailability because of rationing of medical care, i.e. allocation and prioritization of health resources, which often results in deprioritizing older persons for health treatment. Accessibility includes physical, financial and information components. Older persons may be unable to access health care because of the location of services or their limited physical mobility. Poverty may also exacerbate older persons’ inability to access healthcare, particularly where social security does not exist. Finally, information accessibility refers to the right to seek, receive and impart information regarding health issues. With regard to older persons, it means that health-related information should be tailored to suit their needs and communicated to them in an appropriate, comprehensible manner allowing them to make fully informed decisions about their health condition and treatment. 26. States should take measures to ensure that older persons receive age-friendly health care of a quality commensurate with that of other age groups. Examples of improved quality goods, services and facilities for older people would include greater numbers of geriatricians and improved training in geriatrics across all specialties to ensure that needs of older persons are recognised and attended to. There is also a need for improved communication across specialties, including allied health professions such as dentists, pharmacists etc in order to adequately address the treatment needs of older persons with multiple chronic illnesses. 27. General comment No. 14 notes that the right to health should be understood in broader terms, which include the underlying determinants of health, such as access to water and sanitation, food and nutrition, education and housing. An example of this would be the sub-optimal nutrition of older persons, which is commonly linked to circumstances under which older persons are isolated, immobile and live in poverty. Education is another relevant determinant for the health of older persons. A recent study in the United States of 16 8 Women, ageing and health: a framework for action: Focus on gender , Geneva, WHO, 2007. Accessed at: http://www.who.int/ageing/publications/Women-ageing-health-lowres.pdf