https://blog.ted.com/what-its-like-to-grow-old-in-different-parts-of-the-world/

The world’s population is getting older. Across the globe, people are living longer thanks to improvements in healthcare, nutrition and technology. This population shift brings with it incredible possibilities, but also a new set of challenges. How do we care for our elderly?

Jared Diamond: How societies can grow old better

In today’s talk, Jared Diamond examines the vast differences in how societies across the globe view and treat their senior citizens. Some groups revere and respect their oldest members, while others see them as senile and incompetent, making them the butt of jokes. In some societies, children care for their parents at home, while in other cultures, children put their parents in homes where others care for them. Some cultures even see their elderly as a burden and resource drain, and opt for more violent approaches to senior care.

The Western system for elder care is far from perfect, notes Diamond, and everyone stands to learn something from how different societies care for their seniors. Watch his talk to hear what he means, and below, read some further insights on how people across the globe treat their old folks.

Who is considered old?

As Diamond mentions in his talk, the perceived value of the elderly is an important factor in determining whether seniors are respected or not. And this may be a function of who is considered old. In the United States a senior citizen is defined as someone who is 65+. But in other parts of the world, like New Guinea, anyone 50 or over is considered lapun, or an old man. As Diamond points out in his book, The World Until Yesterday, this difference has wide implications, as the two age groups tend to have a different set of physical and mental abilities.

The United Nations recently turned its attention to developing policy to support aging populations around the world — and their line for elderly begins at 60. In fact, the UN has started celebrating the International Day of Older Persons in October, which acknowledges the contributions to society made by those over the 60-line.

Where do the elderly live?

The Confucian teaching of filial piety shapes the living arrangements of elderly Chinese, Japanese and Korean people. About ¾ of elderly Japanese parents live with their adult children, a pattern replicated in Korea and China. China’s new Elderly Rights Law mandates that children visit their parents frequently, no matter how far away they live. If children don’t comply, they could face fines or jail time. “We raise our children to take care of us when we get old,” one Chinese senior citizen told the BBC.

But of course, it doesn’t take Confucian ideals to place value on spending time with the elderly. Article 207 of the French Civil Code, which was passed in 2004, requires that adult children “keep in touch” with their elderly parents. The law was passed, according to a recent article in The Week, in response to a study that showed a high rate of elderly suicides in France, and to a heat wave in which 15,000 mostly elderly people died,

In India and Nepal, the tradition has long been: a newlywed couple moves in with the groom’s family, in what’s called a patrilocal living arrangement. But shifting economic forces are reshaping residence patterns, according to the University of Maryland’s India Human Development Survey. As parts of the country urbanize, children are moving hundreds of miles away from their parents. The Indian and Nepalese governments are addressing this by developing state-run elderly care programs.

What words describe the elderly?

A culture’s respect for the elderly is often reflected in its language. Honorific suffixes like –ji in Hindi enable speakers to add an extra level of respect to important people — like Mahatma Gandhi, who is often referred to as Gandhiji. According to Wikipedia, mzee in Kiswahili — spoken in many parts of Africa — is a term used by younger speakers to communicate a high level of respect for elders. And as this report reveals, the Hawaiian word kūpuna means elders, with the added connotation of knowledge, experience and expertise.

And then there’s the suffix –san in Japanese, which is often used with elders, reveals the nation’s deep veneration for the old. The country regularly holds Respect for the Aged Day, with the media running special features that profile the oldest Japanese citizens. The Japanese also see a person’s 60^th birthday as a huge event. Kankrei, as the celebration is called, marks a rite of passage into old age.

What special foods can the elderly eat?

Around the world, a number of traditional societies reserve certain foods for the elderly, Diamond reveals in his book. In Nebraska, only senior members of the Omaha Indians eat bone marrow — they believe that if young men do so, they will sprain an ankle. Similarly, the Iban of Borneo advise that only old men eat venison because, if the young taste it, it could make them timid. In Siberia, the Chukchi believe that reindeer milk will make young men impotent and young women flat-chested, so it’s reserved only for older people.

The group with the strongest food taboos: the Arunta Aboriginies, who live near Ayers Rock in Australia. Eating certain foods can lead to a “series of dire consequences for young people,” as Diamond notes in The World Until Yesterday. The Arunta believe that eating parrots will create a hollow in a young man’s head, and a hole will grow in the chin. If young Arunta men eat wildcat, they will develop painful and smelly sores on their head and neck. According to societal belief, young women who eat kangaroo tails will age prematurely … and go bald. Meanwhile, quail consumption will lead to stunted breast development, and conversely, eating brown hawks will lead the breasts to swell and burst, without even producing milk.

Do the elderly have special powers?

As Diamond mentions in his talk, many elders are respected because of highly specialized skills and knowledge. For example, Hawaiian grandmothers are revered for their unique knowledge and skill at creating ornate leis and feather accessories. Similarly, since an elderly woman in New Guinea was the only person alive who witnessed a devastating typhoon, her people looked to her for guidance on which plants are safe to eat if another disaster were to strike. Even Western societies revere the experience associated with age — the average age for a US President is 54; the average age for a Supreme Court justice is 53.

But certain societies take this a step further and attribute magical powers to the elderly. The Huaorani people of Ecuador believe that elderly shamans, called mengatoi, are endowed with magical powers, according to this Thinkquest article. This society believes that shamans can transform into jaguars. These elderly healers sit with the infirm to channel their animal spirits a cure for disease.

And what does the end of life look like?

End-of-life decisions vary drastically across cultures. Some societies do everything possible to keep their elderly alive. Other groups, however, see old and frail members as a burden, and thus take steps to end their lives. In his talk, Diamond notes that eldercide typically happens in communities that are either nomadic, or that live in harsh climates with limited resources.

According to a study in American Ethnologist, the Chukchi of Siberia practice voluntary death, in which an old person requests to die at the hand of a close relative when they are no longer in good health. And in The World Since Yesterday, Diamond notes that the Crow Indians in the US and Norse tribes in Scandinavia follow similar practices — the elderly put themselves in an impossible situation, like setting out to sea on a solo voyage. Finally, the Ache of Paraguay let their men wander off to die on the “white man’s road,” and — perhaps shockingly to some — they kill elderly women by breaking their necks.

On the flip side, the curious Greek island of Ikaria seems to have life-extending magic in its soil, notes The New York Times. Residents of this small Mediterranean island are four times more likely than their American counterparts to live to 90, and they live on average 8 to 10 years longer after being diagnosed with cancer or cardiovascular disease. Its residents don’t rush through life: they stay up late, eating Kalamata olives, drinking mountain tea and swimming in the crystal-clear water. The answer to this island’s longevity probably lies in its eating patterns and relaxed lifestyle, but nobody can definitively explain the magic behind this island of centenarians.

What are the traditions surrounding old age in your culture?

Please see attached a pdf file of chapter 5 (The Creative Process) from Edward Wilson's Letters to a Young Scientist.

Write 2-3 paragraphs expressing your ideas & views on ONE of the readings. Include reflections from today's visit to Mt. Pleasant.

• What is a "Reflection"
  • Thoughts, Opinions, Observations gathered Post-Event/Synthesis

Monday, March 28, 2016

World’s older population grows dramatically

NIH-funded Census Bureau report offers details of global aging phenomenon.

The world’s older population continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Today, 8.5 percent of people worldwide (617 million) are aged 65 and over. According to a new report, “An Aging World: 2015(link is external),”  this percentage is projected to jump to nearly 17 percent of the world’s population by 2050 (1.6 billion).

“An Aging World: 2015” was commissioned by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. The report examines the demographic, health and socioeconomic trends accompanying the growth of the aging population.

“Older people are a rapidly growing proportion of the world’s population,” said NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, M.D. “People are living longer, but that does not necessarily mean that they are living healthier. The increase in our aging population presents many opportunities and also several public health challenges that we need to prepare for. NIA has partnered with Census to provide the best possible data so that we can better understand the course and implications of population aging.”

“An Aging World: 2015” contains detailed information about life expectancy, gender balance, health, mortality, disability, health care systems, labor force participation and retirement, pensions and poverty among older people around the world.

“We are seeing population aging in every country in every part of the world,” said John Haaga, Ph.D., acting director of NIA’s Division of Behavioral and Social Research. “Many countries in Europe and Asia are further along in the process, or moving more rapidly, than we are in the United States. Since population aging affects so many aspects of public life — acute and long-term health care needs; pensions, work and retirement; transportation; housing — there is a lot of potential for learning from each other’s experience.”

Highlights of the report include

• America’s 65-and-over population is projected to nearly double over the next three decades, from 48 million to 88 million by 2050.
• By 2050, global life expectancy at birth is projected to increase by almost eight years, climbing from 68.6 years in 2015 to 76.2 years in 2050.
• The global population of the “oldest old” — people aged 80 and older — is expected to more than triple between 2015 and 2050, growing from 126.5 million to 446.6 million. The oldest old population in some Asian and Latin American countries is predicted to quadruple by 2050.
• Among the older population worldwide, noncommunicable diseases are the main health concern. In low-income countries, many in Africa, the older population faces a considerable burden from both noncommunicable and communicable diseases.
• Risk factors — such as tobacco and alcohol use, insufficient consumption of vegetables and fruit, and low levels of physical activity — directly or indirectly contribute to the global burden of disease. Changes in risk factors have been observed, such as a decline in tobacco use in some high-income countries, with the majority of smokers worldwide now living in low- and middle-income countries.

The report was prepared by Wan He, Ph.D., and Daniel Goodkind. Ph.D., of the International Programs Center in the Population Division of the Census Bureau, and Paul Kowal, Ph.D., of the World Health Organization’s Study on Global Aging and Adult Health. Research for and production of the report were supported under an interagency agreement with NIA’s Division of Behavioral and Social Research.

About the National Institute on Aging: The NIA leads the federal government effort conducting and supporting research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. The Institute’s broad scientific program seeks to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life. For more information on research, aging, and health, go to www.nia.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health^®

HEALTH

Making Aging Positive

Many of my older-adult patients wanted to make a difference in the world but, finding no role for themselves, were treated as socially useless. Having created a new stage of life, the next step is to make it meaningful.

LINDA P. FRIED

JUN 1, 2014

Between 1900 and 2000, average life expectancy increased by nearly 30 years in the United States and most other developed countries of the world, and the developing world is catching up quickly. For the first time in history, most people now being born can expect to live seven, eight, nine, or more decades. This achievement changes not only the trajectory of individual lives but also the shape of societies: Adults 60 and older are now the fastest-growing segment of our population.

This achievement gives rise to new important questions: What do we want to do with an extra 30 years? How should we, as individuals and as a society, shape the trajectory of our longer lives? Can we design a trajectory that improves the well-being and opportunities of people at all ages? Should we be designing new social policies that will foster these opportunities? How do we prepare young people for longer lives—and can these questions be answered in ways that would be beneficial for all generations?

Unfortunately, rather than evoking celebration or innovation, the news of our longer life spans is generating fear and angst among individuals and concern among policymakers. The questions posed most frequently are not the ones mentioned above, but rather these: Can we afford all these old people? Will they bankrupt our society or ransom the future of our children and grandchildren?

The truth is that we have created a new stage of life but have not yet envisioned its purpose, meaning, and opportunities, and the space is being filled with our fears. [W]e are not looking for answers in the right places.

***

When I was a young geriatrician practicing in Baltimore, I operated under the light provided by my medical training, which prepared me to prevent or treat the health concerns affecting my patients. My training was invaluable, and geriatric medicine is a specialty highly tuned to the needs of older adults. Yet, as they shared their lives with me, my patients taught me that many of the ills associated with aging were worsened—or even created—by the lack of meaning and purpose in people’s lives. Too many of my patients suffered from pain, far deeper than the physical, caused by not having a reason to get up in the morning. Many of my patients wanted to make a difference in the world but, finding no role for themselves, were treated as socially useless and even invisible.

We are a species wired to feel needed, respected, and purposeful. The absence of those qualities is actually harmful to our health, as public health and social scientists have demonstrated. In one pivotal study conducted in the late 1970s, psychologists Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin (now president of the Rockefeller Foundation) examined the significance of autonomy and personal responsibility for the health of nursing home residents. One group of residents was told that they could arrange their room furnishings however they wanted, decide for themselves which nights to attend a movie, and choose house plants to keep and nurture. A second group of residents, advised that the staff “want to do all we can to help you,” had their furniture arranged for them, were informed which movie nights to attend, and were given a house plant cared for by a nurse. After three weeks, almost all residents in the first group experienced significant improvement in physical and mental well-being, whereas most participants in the second group declined or stayed the same.

A follow-up study conducted 18 months later found, remarkably, that members of the disempowered group (which mirrored how we usually treat older adults) were twice as likely to die, compared to their empowered peers (30 percent mortality compared to 15 percent). Further, there is science to suggest that beyond just feeling useful, a key need for successful aging is to feel that you have contributed to leaving the world better than you found it.

So I began to write prescriptions for my patients: “Find something meaningful to do and report back.” Time after time, I would hear back from highly capable older adults that they couldn’t find jobs. If they tried volunteering, they were frequently assigned to roles that didn’t use their capabilities, like licking stamps for someone else’s mail. What a waste of people with a lifetime of experience!

I came to understand that these people, rich in experience and abilities, were being viewed through a lens of ageism that rendered their individual talents and achievements invisible. Few roles existed that used the experience and skills acquired over a lifetime. In our society, older adults are routinely dismissed as impaired, slow, or demented unless they can prove otherwise.

A story a few years ago in The New York Times on the invisibility and marginalization of older adults concluded that “such indignities seem to happen to almost everyone with gray hair or a few wrinkles, and at every sort of place. Store clerks, bank tellers, government workers, pharmacists, hairdressers, nurses, receptionists, and doctors alike ignore the older person and pay attention exclusively to the younger companion, regardless of who is the actual customer or patient.”

There is a growing body of impressive research showing that our attitudes toward aging affect our health, our resilience in the face of adversity, and our very survival. Becca Levy at Yale, a pioneer and leading researcher in this area, conducted a study that followed several hundred adults (50 years and older) for more than 20 years. She and her colleagues found that older adults who held more positive age stereotypes lived 7.5 years longer than their peers who held negative age-related stereotypes.

Ursula Staudinger, director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at the Mailman School of Public Health, has conducted groundbreaking research on the positive plasticity of aging. Her work shows that biology, behavior, and culture constantly interact to shape the development of our lives into the oldest ages. This work confirms the importance of physical environments and social institutions as well as individual attitudes towards aging across the life span.

Unfortunately, negative stereotypes are much more common than positive images; indeed, according to some researchers, ageism is more pervasive in our society than negative stereotypes based on gender, race, or sexual orientation. Our negative attitudes towards aging blind us to the fact that millions of people in their '60s, '70s, '80s, and beyond are robust, active, functional, experienced, capable and talented—and that they want to remain engaged and contributing. However, we have not yet created the social structures, roles, and institutions to capitalize on our success in adding years to life by also adding life to years.

***

We have added 30 years to our lives, not just for the lucky few but for the majority of people in the developed world, and now the developing world. What does this new stage of life mean? Psychologists Erik and Joan Erikson viewed later life as a time when the impulse to give back to society (generativity) becomes an urgent need. Carl Jung, who was unique among early psychologists in his interest in the challenges of the second half of life, saw older age as a rich period of spiritual growth and individuation. Betty Friedan, who trained as a social psychologist, researched the issue of aging late in her life, and suggested that there is a “fountain of age,” a period of renewal, growth, and experimentation based on a new freedom.

The truth is, we don’t yet know what this new stage of life can be, but the first step is to change the lens through which we view aging and challenge our stereotypical assumptions.

For example, contrary to what we believed even in recent decades, exercise can significantly increase muscle mass in older adults, even among nursing home residents; physical and mental exercise can enhance the brain’s plasticity; and meaningful social engagement and activity can reduce the risk of social isolation, depression, and illness, while making a difference in our society.

One very hopeful sign for the future is that leading figures from many fields are starting to recognize that increased longevity is a game-changer for all sectors of society. Through my own service on the Global Agenda Council on Ageing, a special project of The World Economic Forum, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with innovative leaders in business, politics, academia, and health to proactively address how we build a successful aging society from multiple perspectives. We also want to engage the public in this dialogue. Toward this end, the Global Agenda Council on Ageing recently produced an e-book outlining the challenges and opportunities we see, and offering innovative approaches that we plan to undertake in the future.

These examples underscore the importance of investing in research and education on aging and health changes across the life course, and creating the means to achieve this, since the keystone for successful aging is our ability to enjoy good health and function. Having created a new stage of life, the next step is to make it meaningful.