Demographic and health conditions of ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Reference to ‘ageing societies’ conjures imageries that differ sharply. In some cases they revolve around nearly bankrupt pension or social security systems, or about families physically and economically overburdened with responsibilities of simultaneously caring for very young children and the very old. In others, they point to societies overloaded with unsatisfied health care demands of the chronically ill, functionally disabled, and the mentally and physically impaired. In yet others, references to ageing evoke rumblings about stagnant economies, sluggish increases in productivity, heavy taxation burdens, conservative ideologies, and dismal mobility prospects for younger generations. As is plain from reviews of the process in general,^{1– 15} each and every one of these issues, sharing a negative connotation, corresponds to a dimension of the ageing process. In this paper we consider only two dimensions: demographic profile and health status. The demographic dimension consists of conditions related to the relative size, rate of growth, and composition of the elderly population. The health dimension is a function of conditions that influence current and prospective health status of the elderly population and their demand for and actual use of health care.