Ageing in Society Chapter 1

• The proportion of older people (+60) has increased in all countries
• Old age is generally seen as a 'social problem'
• The change first occurred in developed countries an is due to lowered birth rates and improved life expectancy
• Child mortality has reduced which has lead to people having fewer children
• It is estimated that over 1 in 5 old people over 85's have dementia, and that more than 3 in 5 have a limiting longstanding illness.
• Women have greater longevity than men with a gender ratio of 100 to 123 in 65 to 74 year olds, and 100 to 289 in over 85 year olds.
• Women are also more likely to live alone or in institutions because of this factor, and also because women tend to marry older men. Men are also more likely to remarry than women, following widowhood or divorce.
• There is little research into aging minority groups
• 65 is the standard age of retirement for men, and 60 for women.
• The classification is an issue, and there are questions over what should be used to identify it. Some say it should be retirement age, while others believe that physical fitness or events such as becoming a grandparent
• There is much variability in the association between disability or frailty and chronological age
• Planning and prediction of the impact of current trends and behaviours is important as it has many implications for areas such as health, social care, education and more.
• Age distribution is becoming more rectangular
• Family size has decreased. In Victorian times there were as many as 8 children born to each family.
• Family structure has also changed, as people no longer live in the same place as they grew up, and often live more than 6 miles away from their older relatives
• Women working has restricted their previous roles as caregivers for the elderly
• Divorce has increased the complexity of family relationships in families
• Community care and peer relationships have become more important
• Stone (1977) believes that the decrease in respect for the elderly is partially due to the increase in egalitarianism and individualism.
• Fisher claimed that the attitudes towards the elderly, has gone from veneration, to contempt, and now pity.
• It could also be argued that the elderly are often a group who are marginalised and undervalued, in times of hardship.
• It could be considered that old age is a very lonely stage of life and is often associated with depression. This problem is increased by the fact the change in family structure, whereby younger members of the family do not live as close to elderly relatives as they used to. Isolation is also maintained by the tradition by many english women of continuing to maintain their own household, despite widowism and loneliness.
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