World population growing older due to better care

World population growing older due to better care

JAKARTA (JP): Of the approximately 580 million elderly people
in the world today, about 355 million live in developing
countries. By 2020, more than 1,000 million people aged 60 years
and older will be living in the world. More than 700 million of
them will be in developing countries out of which 29 million will
be in Indonesia.

In developing countries, population aging is occurring more
rapidly because of a rapid decline in fertility and an increasing
life expectancy due to medical interventions based on the use of
advanced technology and drugs. These interventions have provided
effective means to treat and prevent many diseases that used to
kill people prematurely. Also of importance is the fact that
population aging in the developing world is accompanied by
persistent poverty.

As such, population aging presents new and serious challenges
for national and international public health. Population aging
has also been projected to aggravate the magnitude of mental
health problems.

This will happen because of the increasing life expectancy of
those with mental disorders and an ever growing number of people
reaching the age at which the risk of such disorders is high.

The emerging social and the public health consequences of
aging, especially in developing countries, need to be taken
seriously, in the majority of these countries poverty, as the
lack of social security schemes, continuing urbanization and the
growing participation of women in the workforce all contribute to
the erosion of traditional forms of care for older people.

Responding to the health challenges five years ago, the World
Health Organization (WHO) launched a program on healthy aging.
Living longer offers many opportunities for personally and
socially fulfilling lives, but it also presents individual and
societal challenges related to quality of life in old age,
including independence, social interaction, health care and
community involvement. In order to respond to these challenges,
countries have to develop sound and affordable policies that
perceive aging as a natural process which continues throughout
the life span. Effective community based programs need to form an
integral part of such healthy aging policies.

National policies need to aim at cost effective public health
interventions to improve the quality of life in old age and such
results have to be widely shared among countries. The idea is to
have more people reach old age in good health and who are capable
of contributing to society, intellectually, spiritually and
physically.

In recent times, there have been voices raised warning of a
gray dawn and of the breakdown of welfare and health systems
under the weight of the increasing number of older people, too
old to work and too ill to manage on their own. What the United
Nations hopes to foster is the notion that older people are a
gift to society. But like all gifts, if they are not appreciated
and used, they become a burden.

An international plan of action on aging was adopted by the UN
in 1982 to promote training and research as well as the exchange
of information and knowledge in order to provide an international
basis for social policies and action. In preparation for the
inevitable consequences of a dramatic increase in the elderly
population, an institute was established in Malta in 1985.

Eventually what has to be highlighted is not the panic but
pride of being older citizens. (Mehru Jaffer)