It's not just the developed world
Last week we referenced an article in The Economist about Japan's struggle in adapting to an aging, shrinking population. There's speculation that Japan's situation is a preview of what many other developed countries will face in the not-to-distant future. That last sentenced should be edited, though, to remove "developed." As this engaging stats presentation from last year's TED conference shows, most of the countries in the world are headed in the direction of longer lifespans and lower fertility rates (the part in question starts at 2:30, but the whole thing is worth a look):
Maybe babies are on their way to becoming an luxury item for everyone.
-Greg Dahlmann
contribute a comment
Your contributions to the conversation are very much appreciated. We do have a few simple guidelines, though. Be civil. Stay on topic. We reserve the right to remove comments that violate the aforementioned guidelines. One more thing: comments are moderated, so it may take a little while for your comment to be posted. Thanks.
comments
Developing countries may indeed also be facing the demographic problems of populations with more people at the high end of the age distribution, and fewer young to take care of them, as a result of prolonged lifespans and reduced fertility.
But they are facing exacerbations of these phenomena that developed countries do not as a result of epidemic disease ravaging the younger portion of the population. This leads to fewer healthy caregivers, many people out of work to provide care, and increasing percentages of dependent younger persons who are afflicted with preventable illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. For every child hospitalized with malaria in many African countries, nursing shortages mandate that parents take time off work to provide in-hospital nursing care.
I would be happy to provide recent statistics on this to anyone who is interested (gleaned from WHO reports and the CIA Factbook, among other sources) for a number of developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Carribean. I have them available in powerpoint form as a part of recent conference presentations. Even better, I can direct you to the sources in question.
The problem shared by developing and developed countries, alike, is a barely tenable ratio of persons requiring caregiving to those able to render care, and the way that this ratio affects physical and psychological welfare of caregivers and care recipients alike, as well as how the ratio affects basic economic factors like ability to work.
The latter are liable to be far more damaging to struggling economies than to relatively successful ones, though damaging to all. And lest we think that economic damage is not a medicoethical ethical issue, it contributes to cycles of migration/immigration and absence of basic services that clearly create problems for quality of life and access to healthcare services.
This problem is not negligible, it is worldwide, and (when reconfigured as a problem of caregiving rather than just of aging), it affects nations of all kinds and people of every sort.
- by Alison Reiheld on Aug 9, 2007 at 11:14 AM | link