The influence of work activity on the duration and quality of life of older people (analytical review)

Abstract

The problems of optimal participation in labor activity of people of older age groups are considered. The dynamics of demographic aging are characterized by duality: against the background of chronological aging, biological rejuvenation of the world's population occurs, which significantly increases human potential. We must move away from erroneous ideas about older age as a period of “sluggish living”; on the contrary, this age provides a person with the opportunity to live a highly productive life. It can be reasonably argued that the older generation today has become more mobile and socially active. Global trends in the transformation of the labor market demonstrate a gradual shift in the employment structure towards older ages. Labor is the basis for the social self-realization of older people and a condition for prolonging active life. The average life expectancy of pensioners who remain active is significantly higher than those who have stopped working. Labor is the most powerful geroprotector! Protecting the physiological state of intelligence in old age is the main task of gerontology and geriatrics. We need to be very critical of current ideas about the degradation of intelligence in old age. The process of intellectual development of a person of mental labor is fundamentally limitless - this is the main way of his existence as an individual. The level of education has a significant impact on life expectancy. People with higher levels of education have lower mortality rates and longer life expectancy. The dominant models of the social status of older people forcefully pushes the elderly person out into “well-deserved rest.” The introduction of a mandatory retirement (“disabled”) age for everyone means that the legislator declares the experience accumulated by older people to have lost social significance. This attitude is a factor in the growth of social tension and impedes the formation of social cohesion, gives rise to a social trend of age discrimination - “ageism”, which manifests itself, in particular,in difficulties in finding a job and in the reduced level of wages for older people. As a result, over the past decade, the number of working pensioners in Russia and the duration of their period of work after retirement have decreased significantly. It is necessary to create a long-term doctrine of the work activity of older people.