It is no secret that India is home to an ageing population. This World Senior Citizens Day, it is worth taking a breath to appraise the health of our seniors and to consider how the pandemic has affected them. As of 2019, older persons – those aged sixty or over – number at 139 million […]
elderly
Elder mental health still a concern
We still need to be concerned about elder mental health, Dr Reema Nadig argues in an article for ETHealthworld.com – especially in the context of the pandemic. Dr Nadig, chief operating officer and group medical director of KITES Senior Care, highlights that mental health issues affect twenty percent of India’s seniors according to the Longitudinal […]
Elder abuse takes many forms
Veneration of our seniors is often considered the norm in India, but elder abuse certainly occurs. According to some estimates, the problem is growing. Down to Earth reported earlier this year of the worrisome trend. The report by the publication cited the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, which found that five percent of India’s seniors […]
Older people and their health during the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has revitalised the conversation surrounding the need to care for the health of older people – an issue that already is of significant import considering the world’s ageing population. In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that “between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over sixty years will […]
Age: How it interacts with COVID-19
India’s seniors continue to account for the largest proportion of deaths due to COVID-19 – but those in younger age demographics are far from immune to the effects of the disease according to recent figures. As reported by Sushmi Dey for The Times News Network (TNN), those above the age of sixty account for fifty […]
India’s seniors are lonely and depressed. How do we address this crisis?
Maya Devi is 85-years-old and living with her daughter in the city of Jammu. But she would not be here for long and soon shift to her younger daughter’s house in Delhi, then soon to her other daughter’s house. This is an arrangement worked among her daughters after her son’s death when her daughter-in-law asked […]
The future of India’s population growth
Indian population is not only growing but also ageing. Latest data reveals that children under fifteen years of age will make up nineteen percent of India’s population by 2050. Currently children represent one out of every four Indians. The elderly population, meanwhile, is on an upward swing. Estimates suggest the elderly will account for thirteen […]
The depression epidemic among India’s seniors
India’s elderly population is projected to reach more than 340 million by 2050. Could that result in a new mental health epidemic? New data reveals that 21.9 percent of India’s elderly suffer from depression. This is a much higher rate than the global average. Fifteen percent of the world’s elderly population suffer from a mental […]
India’s population is ageing faster. What does that mean?
It is no secret that India’s population is growing, and growing fast. Home already to more than 1.3 billion people, the country is projected to supersede China as the world’s most populous nation by 2024. The population is expected to touch 1.5 billion people by 2030. This population boom has coincided with a rise in […]
India faces a future struggle with Alzheimer’s disease
India is entirely unprepared for a future in which the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease rises sharply, according to The Alzheimer’s and Related disorders Society of India (ARDSI) it cites the lack of government policy in place to address the condition. Two decades ago the condition was considered to be rare in India. However, current estimates […]