Population aging, demographic trends and consequences for long-term care

in Boll, Thomas; Ferring, Dieter; Valsiner, Jaan (Eds.) Cultures of care in aging (2018)

This chapter reviews recent projections related to the aging of populations, developments in health expectancy and disability, and associated trends in need for and provision of long-term care, focusing ... [more ▼]

This chapter reviews recent projections related to the aging of populations, developments in health expectancy and disability, and associated trends in need for and provision of long-term care, focusing on the developments in Europe but mentioning worldwide trends where possible. First, I present demographic trends in changing age structure of populations, expected costs of those changes, and discuss how innovative measures such as the ‘real elderly dependency ratio’ could offer a more balanced view on those trends. Second, projections of healthy life expectancy and time spent with morbidity and disability are presented. Then possible limitations of those projections are discussed, especially regarding recent evidence on changing incidence of dementia, and the possible further reductions in incidence if unfavorable lifestyle and health behaviours were reduced. After that, I will delineate demographic trends in need for assistance with care, and their implications for both formal and informal long-term care provision and costs. Specifically, a ‘care gap’ both in the provision of formal and informal care has been foreseen for several countries. Lastly, I discuss some trends and phenomena in long-term care provision which may influence the trends in long-term care needs and provision. In particular, estimated care gaps could become less threatening if the trend of migration of trained and untrained caregivers to provide live-in and institutional care in understaffed countries will continue, and if technological innovations will reduce care needs by enabling persons with disabilities to carry out activities of daily living autonomously. [less ▲]

Increases in well-being in the transition to retirement for unemployed. Catching up with formerly employed persons

in Ageing & Society (2017), online

This paper examines the extent to which well-being levels change in the transition to retirement depending on transitioning from being employed, unemployed, or economically inactive. Whereas transitioning ... [more ▼]

This paper examines the extent to which well-being levels change in the transition to retirement depending on transitioning from being employed, unemployed, or economically inactive. Whereas transitioning from employment to unemployment has been found to cause a decrease of subjective well-being with more time spent in unemployment, it is not clear how transitioning from unemployment to retirement affects well-being levels. We use the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to monitor life satisfaction of respondents who retire in between two waves. We portray well-being scores before and after retirement and then identify the change in life satisfaction during the retirement transition using a First Difference model. Results indicate that being unemployed before retirement is associated with an increase in life satisfaction, but presents mainly a catching-up effect compared to employed persons transitioning to retirement. Retirement from labour market inactivity does not lead to significant changes in well-being. Findings are robust to selection into unemployment and country differences. As well-being of unemployed persons recovers after transitioning to retirement, especially the currently unemployed population should be supported to prevent detrimental consequences of economically unfavourable conditions and lower well-being. [less ▲]

Detecting the "Big Red Spot" of age-period excess mortality in 25 countries: Age-period-cohort residual analysis

in PAA Server (2017, April 28)

In times of wide availability of yearly mortality information of age and period groups all over the world, we lack in tools that detect and graph fine-grained deviations from mortality trends. We provide ... [more ▼]

In times of wide availability of yearly mortality information of age and period groups all over the world, we lack in tools that detect and graph fine-grained deviations from mortality trends. We provide a new age-period-cohort based methodology, combining information from age-period (AP) and APC-Detrended (APCD) analyses to detect all-cause mortality increases. Plotting the resulting AP coefficients and APCD residuals in equilateral Lexis diagrams, mortality patterns can easily be distinguished as age, period, or cohort trends and fluctuations. Additionally, we detect abnormalities as interactions of age and period (‘big red spots’). We then investigate the ‘red spots’ of mortality of young-adult cohorts in the early 1990s in Spain, other southern European countries and the U.S. to delineate their simultaneously occurring public health crises. Additional analyses with WHO mortality data show that mortality increases are mostly due to increased HIV/AIDS mortality. We discuss possible applications of the new method. [less ▲]

Social inequalities in dementia care, cure, and research

in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2017)

Social inequalities in dementia can be found in diagnosis, cure, care, and research. Less advantaged groups are women, persons with ethnic minority status, lower income, lower education, and living in ... [more ▼]

Social inequalities in dementia can be found in diagnosis, cure, care, and research. Less advantaged groups are women, persons with ethnic minority status, lower income, lower education, and living in more deprived or rural areas. These social inequalities suggest that funding of research and medical and care expenses related to dementia may not be equitably allocated to those in need, even in the most advanced countries. Experience from the field of heart disease gives an estimate on the timescale and efforts it takes to successfully address social inequalities related to gender. Strong concerted efforts will be needed to mitigate social inequalities in dementia. [less ▲]

Digitaler Anschluss: Warum soziale Medien auch im höheren Alter helfen können

Article for general public (2017)

The most beneficial type of humor

in Bormans, Leo (Ed.) The World Book of Happiness 2.0 (2017)

Explaining later-life cognitive function and decline: Methodological issues and evidence for social and contextual influences

Presentation (2016, July 07)

Maintaining cognitive function starts early in life

Speeches/Talks (2016)

Socioeconomic Hierarchy and Health Gradient: The Role of Income Inequality and Social Origins in Europe

Scientific Conference (2016, April)

Cognitive inequalities in later life: Cross-country differences in the education-cognition gradient

in Gerontologist (2016), 56(S3), 428-429