What is Asia going to do with its rapidly aging population? Rapidly improving medical care, better diets and social safety nets mean that the so-called “homo hundred” – a term used to describe people living more than 100 years – will rise rapidly, meaning countries that provide little in the way of social services for the elderly now will be forced to take on new challenges for which most do not appear to be prepared.
It doesn’t just mean providing food and beds for the elderly. As in Japan, intensive research is going into life extension science, which includes anti-aging medicine research, IT, chemistry and lifestyle development. At the base are daily supervision and early detection of problems to keep aged subjects healthy, as well as programs to keep them occupied and fulfilled.
These were duties that, in an Asia with strong family values and ties, were in the past taken up by the children of the aged. But as in the industrialized world, younger couples are starting to live by themselves. A long ago as 2003, researcher Stella R. Quah, in a report prepared for the United Nations Program on the Family in the Division for Social Policy and Development, wrote that “In traditional societies, the close proximity to kin was considered a valuable feature of one’s home both in terms of physical and economic security.” But, Quah there has been a progressive decline in the average size of households in all 10 of the Asian nations she studied. As the societies grow wealthier, that decline is inevitably going to accelerate, leaving governments more and more with the job of taking care of the elderly. Full story...
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It doesn’t just mean providing food and beds for the elderly. As in Japan, intensive research is going into life extension science, which includes anti-aging medicine research, IT, chemistry and lifestyle development. At the base are daily supervision and early detection of problems to keep aged subjects healthy, as well as programs to keep them occupied and fulfilled.
These were duties that, in an Asia with strong family values and ties, were in the past taken up by the children of the aged. But as in the industrialized world, younger couples are starting to live by themselves. A long ago as 2003, researcher Stella R. Quah, in a report prepared for the United Nations Program on the Family in the Division for Social Policy and Development, wrote that “In traditional societies, the close proximity to kin was considered a valuable feature of one’s home both in terms of physical and economic security.” But, Quah there has been a progressive decline in the average size of households in all 10 of the Asian nations she studied. As the societies grow wealthier, that decline is inevitably going to accelerate, leaving governments more and more with the job of taking care of the elderly. Full story...
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