The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Giving the aged a better life

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Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009
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Giving the aged a better life

Staff Reporter

Two-day international colloquium on ‘Oldest old’
Global ageing scenario in focus

Thiruvananthapuram: More medical research on ageing is the need of the hour as healthy ageing alone can accrue socio-economic benefits as the dividends of longevity, International Longevity Centre president S. D. Gokhale has said.

He was inaugurating an international colloquium on the ‘Oldest old,’ organised by the Centre for Gerontological Studies, here on Monday.

Medical research is currently focussed on curative aspects of diseases but when treating the oldest old — those in the 80-above age group — one should look at the process of ageing rather than just the diseases.

It is very important that the elderly are taught to cope with ageing through changes in lifestyle and by changing the way they work. They should be taught to utilise differently, whatever mental faculties they have intact so that their physical challenges are less troublesome, Dr. Gokhale said.

The problem of disability is grave in the 80-plus age group but this had not been taken into account in the policy guidelines available. About 17.2 per cent of the physically challenged population in the country are in this age group, he pointed out.

Using assistive devices is a new concept in gerontology which India needs to embrace, he said. These are rehabilitative devices with simplified technology that can help promote greater independence in the elderly by enabling them to perform simple tasks in daily life that they are unable to or have difficulty in accomplishing.

Assistive devices and elderly friendly houses can help give them a better living. Some 4,500 such devices had been developed in the West. India can adapt at least a few hundred to give a better quality of life to its elderly population, Dr. Gokhale said.

In his keynote address, Marc Derveeuw, representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), pointed out how nations, which rose as economic powers on the basis of a population stabilisation policy and mortality/morbidity reduction, are now forced to face the consequences of this strategy.

Ageing population has become the major development issue of the 21st century, he said.

Dr. Derveeuw also drew attention to the higher proportion of women in the 80-plus age group.

Delegates from 14 nations are participating in the two-day colloquium, which will discuss the global ageing scenario and various issues in caring and support for the 80-plus age group.

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