Rate Of Population Aging Research Articles

Racial Segregation, Testing Site Access, and COVID-19 Incidence Rate in Massachusetts, USA.

The U.S. has merely 4% of the world population, but contains 25% of the world’s COVID-19 cases. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., Massachusetts has been leading other states in the total number of COVID-19 cases. Racial residential segregation is a fundamental cause of racial disparities in health. Moreover, disparities of access to health care have a large impact on COVID-19 cases. Thus, this study estimates racial segregation and disparities in testing site access and employs economic, demographic, and transportation variables at the city/town level in Massachusetts. Spatial regression models are applied to evaluate the relationships between COVID-19 incidence rate and related variables. This is the first study to apply spatial analysis methods across neighborhoods in the U.S. to examine the COVID-19 incidence rate. The findings are: (1) Residential segregations of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Black/African Americans have a significantly positive association with COVID-19 incidence rate, indicating the higher susceptibility of COVID-19 infections among minority groups. (2) Non-Hispanic Black/African Americans have the shortest drive time to testing sites, followed by Hispanic, Non-Hispanic Asians, and Non-Hispanic Whites. The drive time to testing sites is significantly negatively associated with the COVID-19 incidence rate, implying the importance of the accessibility of testing sites by all populations. (3) Poverty rate and road density are significant explanatory variables. Importantly, overcrowding represented by more than one person per room is a significant variable found to be positively associated with COVID-19 incidence rate, suggesting the effectiveness of social distancing for reducing infection. (4) Different from the findings of previous studies, the elderly population rate is not statistically significantly correlated with the incidence rate because the elderly population in Massachusetts is less distributed in the hotspot regions of COVID-19 infections. The findings in this study provide useful insights for policymakers to propose new strategies to contain the COVID-19 transmissions in Massachusetts.

Intra-operative anaesthetic management of older patients undergoing liver surgery

Older patients represent a growing proportion of the general surgical caseload. This includes those undergoing liver resection, with figures rising faster than the rate of population ageing. The physiology of ageing leads to changes in all body systems which may render the provision of safe anaesthesia more challenging than in younger patients. Anaesthesia for liver surgery has specific principles, largely aimed at reducing venous bleeding from the liver, and those related to complex major surgery.This review explores the principles of anaesthesia for liver resection and describes how they may require modification in the older patient. The traditional approach of low central venous pressure anaesthesia in order to reduce bleeding may need to be altered in the presence of a cardiovascular system less able to tolerate hypotension and hypoperfusion. These changes in physiology should also lower the threshold for invasive monitoring. The provision of effective analgesia perioperatively should be tailored to minimise the surgical stress response and opiate use. Careful consideration of general principles of intra-operative care for older patients, such as positioning, drug dosing, avoidance of excessively deep anaesthesia, and maintenance of normothermia are also important given the prolonged, complex nature of liver surgery. This individualised approach, with careful attention to changes in physiology allows liver resections to be undertaken in older patients without increases in mortality.

Gerontolojik Sosyal Çalışma Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

Today, average life expectancies are increasing day by day due to reasons such as developments in the field of health, increased health literacy and a conscious society structure. When low birth rates are added to this situation, the rate of elderly population in the society increases more than ever before. The increase in the elderly population rates, which is a global phenomenon, has led to increased awareness of societies about aging and aging. With the demographic transformation, the need for re-formation has emerged in many areas from healthcare to social work. With this change and transformation, it is predicted that more people will need social work. The social work profession, which has been focused on working with children and youth for a long time, will begin to work with the older population group more intensively in this process. Gerontological social workers are people who are experts in meeting the biopsychosocial needs of older individuals. Social workers have different roles and responsibilities in various institutions and organizations. Today, changing expectations and needs of older individuals has led to the need to update the knowledge and skills of social workers. In this article, it is aimed to draw attention to the field of gerontological social work, the importance of which increases with the demographic transformation.

Envelhecimento populacional e financiamento público: análise do Rio Grande do Sul utilizando um modelo multissetorial

Os efeitos econômicos do envelhecimento populacional é um tema ainda pouco estudado em países em desenvolvimento. No contexto brasileiro, o Rio Grande do Sul é um dos estados com maiores taxas de envelhecimento populacional. Esta mudança demográfica altera o perfil do consumo da economia, influenciando outras variáveis relacionadas. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar os impactos das mudanças demográficas na arrecadação de impostos sobre consumo no Rio Grande do Sul. Para isso, é utilizado um modelo de insumo-produto regional. Os resultados mostram que o envelhecimento populacional gera um perfil de consumo que reduz a carga destes impostos na economia.

Covid-19 in Israel: socio-demographic characteristics of first wave morbidity in Jewish and Arab communities

BackgroundThe first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hit Israel in late February 2020. The present study examines patterns of the first wave of Covid-19 morbidity in Israel at the macro level, during the period of late February to early June 2020, when the first wave has faded out. The analysis focuses on the significance of four sociodemographic variables: socioeconomic status, population density, rate of elderly population and minority status (Jewish / Arab identity) of the population in cities with 5000 residents or more. Additionally, we take a closer look into the association between morbidity rates and one SES component – home Internet access.MethodsThe article is a cross sectional study of morbidity rates, investigated on a residential community basis. Following the descriptive statistics, we move on to present multivariate analysis to explore associations between these variables and Covid-19 morbidity in Israel.ResultsBoth the descriptive statistics and regressions show morbidity rates to be positively associated with population density. Socioeconomic status as well as the size of elderly population were both significantly related to morbidity, but only in Jewish communities. Interestingly, the association was inverse in both cases. i.e., the higher the SES the lower the morbidity and the larger the elderly population, the lower the community’s morbidity. Another interesting result is that overall, morbidity rates in Jewish cities were consistently higher than in Arab communities.ConclusionsWe attribute the low morbidity rates in communities with relatively small elderly populations to the exceptionally high fertility rates in ultra-orthodox communities that sustained increased rates of morbidity; the lower morbidity in Arab communities is attributed to several factors, including the spatial Jewish-Arab segregation.

Punching Above its Weight: Current and Future Aging Policy in Malta.

Malta has been at the forefront in aging policy and healthy aging development. It was the first country to highlight the need of a United Nations-led international action plan aimed at meeting the needs of an emerging global aging population. Through a number of initiatives, Malta has managed to put aging as a top priority on its national policy agenda. The country boasts of the longest life span spent in good health among all European Union countries with its inhabitants expected to live a significant portion of their life free of disability. Malta's ranking in the Active Ageing Index experienced consistent improvements in the past decade, registering the sharpest progress in the European Union. In response to an increase in individuals with dementia, Malta was also among the first countries to adopt a national strategic policy for dementia. Notwithstanding such significant progress, Malta still lags behind in developing policy directions addressing gender inequalities and minority groups' interests among its older population. Similar to other Southern European countries, Malta's accelerated rate of population aging raises concerns with regard to economic growth, sustainability of effective health care and pension systems, and the well-being of older persons. Gender will also feature prominently in the future planning of long-term care policy as older women are projected to increase threefold in the foreseeable years with the high risk of poverty associated with older single and widowed women, implying that a few would be able to opt for private care.

Measuring geographical disparities in England at the time of COVID-19: results using a composite indicator of population vulnerability.

ObjectivesThe growth of COVID-19 infections in England raises questions about system vulnerability. Several factors that vary across geographies, such as age, existing disease prevalence, medical resource availability and deprivation, can trigger adverse effects on the National Health System during a pandemic. In this paper, we present data on these factors and combine them to create an index to show which areas are more exposed. This technique can help policy makers to moderate the impact of similar pandemics.DesignWe combine several sources of data, which describe specific risk factors linked with the outbreak of a respiratory pathogen, that could leave local areas vulnerable to the harmful consequences of large-scale outbreaks of contagious diseases. We combine these measures to generate an index of community-level vulnerability.Setting91 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England.Main outcome measuresWe merge 15 measures spatially to generate an index of community-level vulnerability. These measures cover prevalence rates of high-risk diseases; proxies for the at-risk population density; availability of staff and quality of healthcare facilities.ResultsWe find that 80% of CCGs that score in the highest quartile of vulnerability are located in the North of England (24 out of 30). Here, vulnerability stems from a faster rate of population ageing and from the widespread presence of underlying at-risk diseases. These same areas, especially the North-East Coast areas of Lancashire, also appear vulnerable to adverse shocks to healthcare supply due to tighter labour markets for healthcare personnel. Importantly, our index correlates with a measure of social deprivation, indicating that these communities suffer from long-standing lack of economic opportunities and are characterised by low public and private resource endowments.ConclusionsEvidence-based policy is crucial to mitigate the health impact of pandemics such as COVID-19. While current attention focuses on curbing rates of contagion, we introduce a vulnerability index combining data that can help policy makers identify the most vulnerable communities. We find that this index is positively correlated with COVID-19 deaths and it can thus be used to guide targeted capacity building. These results suggest that a stronger focus on deprived and vulnerable communities is needed to tackle future threats from emerging and re-emerging infectious disease.

Effects of combined substance membratonon correction of theindicators of zoo-social behavior of old rats

Brain aging is accompanied by the development of an imbalance of the systems of chemical regulation of cells, a decrease in neurotrophic factors, and disorders of brain plasticity. Important place in the neurotransmitter changes in aging is given to the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), represented in the system of both external and internal neurotransmitters. With aging, the activity of GABA systems changes and the content of GABA in brain structures decreases, which is associated with impaired mental function and the development of pathology, in particular, dementia. Given the prevalence of pathology and the rate of population aging, the search for effective and safe means for the prevention and comprehensive metabolic treatment of age-related cognitive and psycho-emotional disorders remains relevant. In experiments on adult (10 months) and old (24 months) Wistar male rats, we investigated the pharmacological activity and age-specificities of the combination, including GABA and magnesium gluconate in the form of a coordination compound (γ-aminobutyro-Mg(II)–gluconate), and pyridoxine hydrochloride (Membraton). Tests "dark / light camera" and "three-chamber activity" established age differences in the behavior of rats. In older animals, amid increased anxiety, there was a decrease in zoo social interaction, such as communication, novelty preference, and social recognition. Under the influence of the course introduction of Membraton (100 and 500 mg / kg) in old rats, anxiety decreased and social activity increased: motivation and initiation of social contact increased, contact with an unfamiliar partner-stimulus increased, recognition of a familiar and unfamiliar partner was normalized. Under the influence of the remedy, indicators of social behavior of old animals approached the level of young animals. The established effects make it possible to consider Membraton as a promising metabolic therapy for increasing sociality in psycho-emotional disorders associated with age.

The Impact of Population Aging on Local Government Debt

International evidence of Japan and European countries indicates that government debt burden could be aggravated by population aging in the long run. During recent years, population aging in China has been accelerating, with the debt burden of local government increasing simultaneously. Therefore, it is high time that the impact of population aging on local government debt should be taken seriously. However, until now there is still rare research upon whether China’s local government debt burden has been intensified by population aging.In view of this, firstly, this paper estimates the debt burden of each province from the perspective of interest-bearing debt of local government financing platforms. It covers both the explicit debt and the implicit debt, so the results are more accurate. Secondly, this paper analyzes the impact of population aging on local government debt using panel data of 30 regions in China（excluding Tibet）from 2010 to 2017. The empirical results show that the population aging has already worsen the debt burden of local governments to a considerable extent. What’s more, the panel intermediary effect analysis reveals that population aging could exert pressure on local government debt mainly from two aspects. On the one hand, fiscal expenditure on pensions would be more and fiscal revenue would be less, which will expand the numerator of debt-to-GDP ratio and push up the local government debt burden. On the other hand, economic growth slows down as population aging goes severer, which will whittle down the denominator of debt-to-GDP ratio and push up the local government debt burden.According to the prediction of the World Population Prospects（2019 Version）, the population aging rate of China will reach 16.9% by 2030, and reach 26.1% by 2050. Given that the risk posed by population aging to local government debt has been too serious to be ignored, this paper puts forward the following policies based on the mechanism analysis. Firstly, improve the pension system and reduce the burden of fiscal pension expenditures by increasing the size of personal pensions and increasing the return on investment of pension funds. Secondly, as local governments’ fiscal revenue will decline during the population aging process, it is difficult for them to accomplish the affairs arranged by the central government. It is necessary to further strengthen the central government’s authority and expenditure responsibility, so as to reduce the fiscal pressure of local governments. Thirdly, it is necessary to accelerate the innovation progress taking high-tech industries such as artificial intelligence as a starting point, so as to build up GDP and to dilute the debt burden, which can also achieve the purpose of reducing the risk of local government debt.

ÜNİVERSİTE ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN YAŞLILIK ALGISI: BORÇKA ACARLAR MYO ÖRNEĞİ

Interest in old age, which is an important stage in human life, can be based on very old dates. However, despite this interest, until the last century, there has not been sufficient information in this area. The fact that old age brings many problems especially in industrialized countries and the elderly population reach serious dimensions has brought along the examination of the phenomenon of old age. The rapid increase in the rate of elderly population in our country and the fact that problems of old age cannot be solved in the family have caused an increase in the number of gerontological studies. Cultural traces of societies are reflected in social life. Therefore, attitudes towards aging vary from one society to another, and these attitudes affect elderly health. The meanings attributed to old age cause the weakening of social ties and cause the elderly to move away from society. Some researches on young people show that young individuals have some misconceptions about older people and old age. The aim of this study was to investigate the elderly attitudes of university students and to determine some factors affecting the perception of old age. In this context, data were obtained by using questionnaire form and Elder Discrimination Attitude Scale (YATO) for socio-demagnetic data. As a result of the study, it was found that there was no difference in the perception of old age among the individuals who were living at home and those who were 65 years old and above, and the students 'perception of old age was not affected by socio-demographic variables and the students' attitude towards older discrimination was higher than the middle level.

DEMOGRAFİK YAŞLANMANIN ÇALIŞMA YAŞAMINA YÖNELİK RİSKLERİNE KARŞILIK YAŞLI YETİŞKİNLERİN SOSYAL SERMAYELERİNİN GÜÇLENDİRİLMESİ

Demographic aging, which is explained by decreasing birth rates and increasing average life span, naturally increases the rate of elderly population in the total population. The increase in the elderly population rate has various effects; from health policies to social security; from micro to macro economy, from environmental issues to education and even to family structures and social relations and it has many results. The change that occurs with the increase in the elderly rate in the total population does not only mean a change in the population structure, it also changes the structure of the workforce in which a significant part of the population is located. Aging of the workforce, which is one of the concepts representing the production power of a country; causes us to rethink working life by changing labor supply, labor productivity, labor demand and economic growth, work behaviors, unionization trends and actuarial balance, which is a sine qua non of the social insurance system. Strengthening the social capital of older adults in and out of employment will reduce existing and potential risks in favor of older adults by evaluating their existing disadvantaged positions together with assuming that older people, who are one of the disadvantaged groups with the aging of the societies, may be more involved in working life. In this study, the effects of demographic aging on labor markets, the problems it creates and the contributions of strengthening the social capital of older adults will be discussed.

Malnutrition, frailty and quality of life in older adults – a cross cultural study

AbstractIntroductionLife expectancy has considerably improved over the past century. Despite the population living longer, this greater number of life years has been associated with increases in chronic morbidity and mortality, including age-related debilitating conditions, such as frailty and malnutrition with profound implications both socially and economically on society. Given the increasing rates of population ageing, it is critical to ensure that functional ability, wellbeing and quality of life (QoL) are maintained and the factors involved in these processes are understood. This project aimed to compare the prevalence of frailty and malnutrition in community-dwelling older adults living in the UK and Spain; and identify potential determinants of malnutrition, frailty and QoL.Materials and methodsA cross sectional study among 64 male and female community-dwelling older adults 65–92 years from the UK (n = 33) and Spain (n = 31) was conducted. Nutritional status, frailty and QoL were assessed by previously validated self-reported questionnaires: the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF), the FiND (Frail Non-Disabled questionnaire) and the SHARE (Study of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe) version of the CASP-12. Multiple and/or logistic regression models were applied to assess factors that predict malnutrition, QoL and risk of frailty.ResultsIn total, mean age of participants was 77 ± 8 years and mean Body Mass Index (BMI) was 26.06 ± 4.78 kg/m2. Mean MNA-SF score was 12.70 ± 1.92, and mean QoL was 40.36 ± 5.35. The overall prevalence of malnutrition and frailty was 18.8% and 23.4% respectively. Participants in the UK were more likely to be malnourished than those in Spain (24.2% vs 12.9%), although not significantly (p = 0.245), and the prevalence of frailty was higher in the UK (36.4% vs 9.7%) (p = 0.012). BMI, being frail and income were significant predictors of malnutrition (p < 0.05). Higher QoL was a significant protective factor for frailty risk (Odds Ratio 0.728; 95%CI 0.59–0.90; p = 0.004). Age, income and being frail were significant predictors of QoL (p < 0.05).DiscussionTo our knowledge this is the first cross-cultural study that explored associations between malnutrition, frailty and QoL, using validated questionnaires in both languages. Despite the small sample size, it was revealed that malnutrition and frailty are conditions that can be identified in community dwelling older adults. Although participants self-reported a good QoL, frailty was found to be a strong predictor of QoL. Implementing culturally suited strategies to detect malnutrition and frailty status and prevent further decline would be useful to improve the QoL of older adults in these countries.

Measuring Geographical Disparities in England at the Time of Covid-19: Results Using a Composite Indicator of Population Vulnerability

Objectives – The growth of COVID-19 infections in England raises questions about system vulnerability. Several factors that vary across geographies, such as age, existing disease prevalence, medical resource availability, and deprivation, can trigger adverse effects on the National Health System during a pandemic. In this paper, we present data on these factors and combine them to create an index to show which areas are more exposed. This technique can help policy makers to moderate the impact of similar pandemics.Design – We combine several sources of data, which describe specific risk factors linked with the outbreak of a respiratory pathogen, that could leave local areas vulnerable to the harmful consequences of large-scale outbreaks of contagious diseases. We combine these measures to generate an index of community-level vulnerability.Setting – 191 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England.Main outcome measures – We merge 15 measures spatially to generate an index of community-level vulnerability. These measures cover prevalence rates of high-risk diseases; proxies for the at-risk population density; availability of staff and quality of healthcare facilities.Results – We find that 80% of CCGs that score in the highest quartile of vulnerability are located in the North of England (24 out of 30). Here, vulnerability stems from a faster rate of population ageing and from the widespread presence of underlying at-risk diseases. These same areas, especially the North-East Coast areas of Lancashire, also appear vulnerable to adverse shocks to healthcare supply due to tighter labour markets for healthcare personnel. Importantly, our Index correlates with a measure of social deprivation, indicating that these communities suffer from long-standing lack of economic opportunities and are characterised by low public and private resource endowments.Conclusions – Evidence-based policy is crucial to mitigate the health impact of pandemics such as COVID-19. While current attention focuses on curbing rates of contagion, we introduce a vulnerability index combining data that can help policy makers identify the most vulnerable communities. We find that this index is positively correlated with COVID-19 deaths and it can thus be used to guide targeted capacity building. These results suggest that a stronger focus on deprived and vulnerable communities is needed to tackle future threats from emerging and re-emerging infectious disease.

Current Status of Treatment for Acute Large Vessel Occlusion Stroke in Awaji Island Area after the Introduction of Endovascular Treatment.

We retrospectively analyzed the current status of treatment for anterior circulation large vessel occlusion (LVO) in island areas with a high population aging rate. We investigated 62 consecutive patients with ischemic stroke due to acute anterior circulation LVO between October 1, 2017 and June 30, 2019. In all, 26 (41.1%) patients underwent endovascular treatment (EVT). The successful recanalization rate of EVT was 88.5% (23/26). There was a significant difference in the age (median, 75.5 years vs. 81 years, respectively, P = 0.0411) and the rate of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) therapy (53.5% vs. 11.1%, respectively, P <0.001) between the EVT group and the non-EVT group. Patients in the EVT group achieved a favorable outcome more frequently than those in the non-EVT group (50% vs. 11.1%, respectively, P = 0.0012). In the analysis based on the place of onset among the three cities comprising Awaji Island and the four groups with in-hospital onset, there was no significant difference in the rate of EVT, and the outcome of the in-hospital onset group was poor. Among the EVT group, there was a significant difference in the pre-treatment National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score (median, 15 vs. 19, respectively, P = 0.0237) and time from onset to recanalization (O2R; median, 240 min vs. 323 min, respectively, P = 0.0128) between the favorable outcome group and the unfavorable outcome group. Even in an island area, it is possible to complete the treatment of ischemic stroke due to LVO within the regional medical area.

China has faster pace than Japan in population aging in next 25 years

The aging of a population structure is an inevitable path of demographic transition, as an inescapable result of decline in fertility rate and extension in life expectancy. Although demographic transition occurred earlier in Japan than in China, the two countries had similar patterns, both of which took a much shorter period of time than Western countries to complete demographic transition, as well as have been aging at a rapid speed that has rarely been seen in the world. Japan has the highest level of population aging in the world, and China has been experiencing a very fast pace of the population aging process and has the largest older population. Drawing upon data from World Population Prospects (2019), this paper compares changes in population aging in both China and Japan. Findings show that Japan's aging process is 30 years ahead of China, but China has been changing in a similar way as Japan. To be specific, both countries experienced four phases of the population aging process: accelerated development period, rapid development period, slow down period and high-level maintained period. In addition, both countries had a quick growing rate of population aging. It will take China 23 years and 10 years respectively for the aging rate increasing from 7% to 14% and then to 20%, while Japan took 24 and 11 years respectively, which is much shorter than developed countries in the West. Furthermore, China has a faster pace than Japan in population aging in the next 25 years. We found that from 2019-2044, China's aging rate, elderly dependency ratio, oldest-old coefficient and median age of population will increase 13.24 percent points, 24.21 percent points, 8.33 percent points, and 8.47 years, while the four indicators of Japan will increase 8.38 percent points, 22.52 percent points, 8.29 percent points, and 6.20 years, respectively.

IMPACTS OF POPULATION AGING ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM

ABSTRACT The population aging is one of the largest demographic changes in the world today. The demographic transition due to aging of the population is and will create huge impacts on all activities of the socio-economic status of each country and each people. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), averagely, two people reach the age of 60 every second or it means, every year the world welcomes around 58 million people over the age of 60. On average, there will be 01 person aged 60 in a total of 9 people, and this ratio will be 5:1 by 2050. Currently, the world has about 901 million elderly people, accounting for 12.3% of the population. This number will increase to more than two billion people by 2050, accounting for 22% of the world population. The population aging is characteristic of high-income countries, not low-income countries. In fact, Vietnam is a middle-income country, but has entered a period of population aging at a very fast pace. This impact greatly on labor productivity in Vietnam in the coming time; therefore, Vietnam needs appropriate policies to cope with the current population aging issue. Keywords population, population aging, consequences of population aging, policies to reduce rate of population aging, Vietnam.

Association between visual problems, insufficient emotional support and urinary incontinence with disability in elderly people living in a poor district in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: A six-year follow-up study.

IntroductionDisability follows the rapid rate of population ageing, imposing a huge burden on society. Functional assessment in older people can identify predictors of disability.ObjectiveAnalyze the incidence and the risk factors for disability in activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) in older adults over six years.MethodsSix year-follow up study initiated in 2010. The baseline non-probabilistic sample consisted of 180 independent community dwelling individuals aged 60 and over. The procedures comprised an interview with sociodemographic data, questions about falls, urinary incontinence, self-rated health, and assessment of ADL, IADL, mobility, depression, vision, hearing, cognition, nutrition, grip strength and social support. The second research was carried out by telephone and assessed ADL and IADL. Logistic regression models calculated the odds of disability in ADL and IADL according to the age, sex and all other variables.ResultsAt six-year follow-up, 118 participants were still alive (65.6%), 31 died (17%) and other 31 were missed (17%). The incidence of disability to performADL and IADL were 25.4% and 32.3%, respectively. The regression logistic models revealed thaturinary incontinence (OR = 3.2; P = 0.03) and insufficient emotional support (OR = 3.8; P = 0.04) were associated with ADL disability, while visual problems (OR: 2.9; P = 0.03) and insufficient emotional support (OR: 5.6; P = 0.01) were associated with IADL disability.ConclusionThe current study has identified that insufficient emotional support, visual problems and urinary incontinence are associated with disability in older adults. The routine assessment of these problems in the primary care clinics enable the implementation of strategies aimed at reducing or postponing disability. Educating patients and families will also enable better choices to reduce the risk of functional decline.

Progress and Implications in the Research of Population Aging and Monetary Policies

Population aging is a major challenge faced by all the human beings in the 21st century. By 2017, the global population-aging rate has reached 8.70%, and by 2030 and 2050, this figure is expected to climb further to 11.66% and 15.82% respectively, among which developed countries are the highest, with 22.93% and 26.62% respectively. Obviously, the rapid accumulation and amplification of life cycle characteristics of individual behaviors will lead to significant macroeconomic effects and policy adjustment pressure, and monetary policy regulations are no exception. In countries and regions with the highest rate of population aging, monetary policies in Japan and the European Union have gone further and further on the road of quantitative easing” in recent years, but economic performance has been lackluster. Therefore, a paramount question is: what effect does the evolution of the population age structure have on monetary policies? As one of the countries with the fastest aging speed and the largest number of elderly people in the world, how should Chinese monetary policies adjust to cope with the tide of aging population? In this paper, we review some literature about the relationship between population aging and the final goal, intermediate target and conduction effects of monetary policies, and present the main content, research method and perspective for the majority of researchers and policy-makers. Then, based on the actual economic development in China, some decision-making suggestions are put forward. The results show that the impact of population aging on monetary policies is mainly reflected in the following aspects. First, from the perspective of the final goal of monetary policies, population aging will lead to a decline in the inflation rate and the level of potential economic output, increase the unemployment rate, trigger international capital flows and asset price fluctuations, and then breed financial risks. Second, from the perspective of the intermediate target of monetary policies, the decline of the fertility rate and the extension of life expectancy will change the dynamic relationship between capital and labor, and lead the marginal rate of return on capital, and then the natural interest rate to decline, thus resulting in the narrowing or even failure of the traditional monetary policy space, and the increase of the risk of economic sliding into liquidity trap”. Finally, the aging population tends to weaken the monetary policy interest rate transmission channel and the credit transmission channel, while the wealth effect channel may gradually strengthen. In China, the time node of aging crisis” will be between 2020 and 2060, and it is still in the front end”. Based on the lessons from developed countries, this paper proposes that China’s monetary policy authorities should strengthen the estimation of the natural interest rate, explore more accurate intermediate targets, dredge transmission channels, and pay attention to the coordination of various regulatory policies to enhance the effectiveness of monetary policies under the shock of aging.

Estudio de prevalencia de demencias en adultos mayores de la comunidad de Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica.

Antecedentes: Los países de bajos y medianos ingresos están experimentando tasas de crecimiento de envejecimiento de la población, así como de la incidencia de personas con deterioro cognitivo. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo estimar la prevalencia de deterioro cognitivo o demencia, y frecuencia de factores asociados en personas adultas mayores del cantón de Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica. Metodología: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo de prevalencias en adultos mayores de 65 años en la comunidad mencionada. Se seleccionó una muestra de 101 adultos mayores identificados mediante la estrategia “tocando puertas” (casa por casa detectando aquellas donde residía al menos un adulto mayor). Se utilizó el protocolo desarrollado por el Grupo 10/66 Dementia Research Group de la Asociación Internacional de Alzheimer, el cual cuenta con seis de cuestionarios a saber: 1. Entrevista sobre el hogar, 2. Entrevista sociodemográfica y de factores de riesgo, 3. Entrevista clínica, 4. Batería de prueba cognitiva, 5. Examen físico y neurológico y 6. Entrevista al informante (en los casos que se contara con acompañante). Se calcularon prevalencias de deterioro cognitivo y frecuencia de algunos factores asociados al riesgo de demencia. Resultados: El desempeño promedio en las pruebas fue de 32,62 puntos (DS: 5,99; rango: 10-43). El 60,4% de los participantes se ubicaron por debajo de este percentil 50 (34 puntos), punto de corte que determina algún grado de deterioro cognitivo. Se encontraron cifras significativas de hábito de fumado en algún momento de la vida y consumo de alcohol; la presencia de condicionantes de riesgo como hipertensión, diabetes mellitus y evidencia de daño como cardiopatía en 20% de los casos; de igual manera 20% de los casos reportaron historia de enfermedad demencial en familiares y problemas que afectan su vida diaria. Finalmente se pudo establecer en pruebas de fluidez verbal cambios significativos en capacidad cognitiva y percepción de problemas de memoria en cerca de un 45% de los habitantes. Conclusiones: El estudio arrojó cifras de prevalencia de demencia similares a las reportadas por otros estudios a nivel mundial. Esto refleja la necesidad de avocarse a las estrategias en salud pública de reducción de riesgo así como la urgencia de activar acciones del Plan Alzheimer de Costa Rica.

Mapping heat-related health risks of elderly citizens in mountainous area: A case study of Chongqing, China

Heat wave becomes a leading cause of weather-related illness and death across the world under the background of climate change, urban heat island, and population ageing. Heat health risk assessment is an important starting point for heat-related morbidity and mortality reduction within the risk governance framework. Chongqing, a mountainous municipality with a fast rate of population ageing in China, was selected as a case study for mapping the heat health risk of the elderly population at a raster scale. The results indicated that the high heat hazard and human exposure areas were mainly distributed in the metropolitan areas, which largely resulted in high heat health risk in the urban areas. However, the high heat vulnerability pixels were mainly concentrated at the remote mountainous regions which have broken terrains and low socioeconomic statuses. Compared with traditional general heat risk indicator, this new model can provide more targeted spatial information to decision makers, and is helpful to improve the flexibility and comparability of heat risk assessment tool. Furthermore, this new model is particularly valuable for quantifying heat health risk in developing countries with limited open access data.