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“Missing Millions”? Older people in disasters and emergencies
As if we needed it, the damage inflicted by Cyclone Idai on three countries across southern Africa is yet another reminder of the increasing vulnerability of whole populations to the impacts of cli...
How To Live Forever: Book Review
At first blush, I didn't think a book entitled How to Live Forever was for me. I was expecting a hard sell on a new killer vitamin that would add years to my life...gene therap...
Choosing to die in anticipation of age-related deterioration: reflections on a complex debate
Across the whole Western world, there is increasing public debate about the exercise of individual control over the timing and manner of death. More and more people, especially in old age, seem to ...
Food transition and demographic change: the role of nutrition in ageing and longevity of populations
The improvement in population longevity is a very complex phenomenon in which a range of environmental, behavioural, sociodemographic and dietary factors all influence physiological mechanisms rele...
Industrial 4.0 VS Society 5.0
Since 2010, the effects of Industry 4.0, a shorthand name for the so-called 4th Industrial Revolution, has been apparent in almost all sectors of German industry. Automation, digitalisation and oth...
Dementia challenges in Pakistan: A case study of low- and middle-income country
In England we are becoming increasingly familiar with dementia. What is this disease? What are its common symptoms? How does it progress and why is it becoming a burden for not just patients but fo...
Population Aging, Automation and Economic Growth: Robots to the Rescue?
A lot has been written about the economic and fiscal challenges associated with the aging of populations. Many studies point to negative consequences of aging such as labor shortages, lower product...
Procedural ways to ensure intergenerational justice
Intergenerational justice is becoming an increasingly important subject on the political agenda. Population ageing, which is beginning to generate visible strains and tensions in many countries, is...
History, life-course, family: a lesson from my grandfather
In 2005, the UN designated 27th January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Movies and documentaries about the shoah are regularly shown on TV, reminding us of the horrors that took place d...
Has the Bauhaus aged well?
The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus – the legendary German design school widely acknowledged to be the fountainhead of modern design and architecture – is currently bei...
Oldushka
I get excited when I hear about empowering stories involving older people or meet young people who genuinely see older people in a non-trivial way and free from ageist stereotypes. It is particular...
A new set of life expectancy projections
NHS England estimates that in 2016 16% of all deaths in England were attributable to smoking. This is the Population Attributable Fraction (PAF) of mortality for smoking. A similar PAF estima...
AGE: NOT JUST A NUMBER
Rejoice, my fellow Italians! We should celebrate. It was announced two weeks ago that our lives as plain “adults” - without age qualification - are longer than we had thought and ...
Why all the fuss about declining fertility?
Should we be encouraging young women to have more children? This was the question I was being asked recently by journalists from media around the globe, from BBC News to the Voice of Islam. The sud...
The happiness of the caregivers
Increased longevity is one of the most remarkable success stories in human history. However, it leads to several challenges. One of them is the rise in the number of older people in need of long-te...