elderly (men)

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  • Created by: Greaves
  • Created on: 02-05-15 16:31
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  • Elderly (men)
    • Definitions
      • Life expectancy
        • How long on average people who are born in a given year can expect to live.
      • The mortality rate
        • Measures the number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year
      • Age standard mortality rate
        • comparison between the number of actual deaths in a population with the number of expected deaths. It allows comparisons to be made over time periods and ages
      • Ageism
        • Negative stereotype of people on the basis of their age e.g. the old being viewed as a burden on society.
      • Death rate
        • The number of deaths per thousand of the population per year.
      • Aging population
        • There are fewer young people and more older people in the population.  this increases the dependency ratio.
    • Trends in Text 3
      • Decline in death rate
        • Source: Daily Telegraph
          • Media source
          • Secondary data
          • Qualitative
          • Published 2012
          • Valid, as article provides in depth written information about the patterns observed in the death rate and provides reasons for the trends.
          • This article is reliable as it uses data from the Office of National Statistics, meaning the data would have been collected with a standardised procedure, comparisons can be made over generations as it is consistent
      • mortality rate ha fallen by a half in the last 30 years.
    • Potential problems with aging population
      • Decrease in the amount of economically active people in population contributing to society, more dependents
      • Older people consume a larger proportion of services, meaning there will be an increase expexpenditure  on healthcare.
      • Amount of one pensioner person households would increase, meaning some houses may have spare rooms therefore houses may not be used efficiently.
      • Ageism may occur as the elderly may be viewed as a burden on the population, age status socially constructed, generally thought about as a problem.
      • Society may worry about how they will meet the cost of providing pensions for the elderly.
      • Decline in fertility as there is a fewer amount of young people who are able to reproduce.
    • Advantages with an aging population
      • Older people can maintain cultures and religions of countries and further generations by passing down their knowledge to children.
      • In retirement most people have a lot of time to spare to continue to society
    • Policy implications
      • To finance a longer period of old age. this could be done by paying more into savings and taxes when people are working.
      • Redistribute educational resources towards older people so they can improve their skills.
      • May need to change housing policy encourage older people to trade down into smaller accommodation.
      • Cultural change, change in our attitudes towards old age  it is a social construct. Change people's beliefs in what share of society's resources should go to people at a later life stage.
    • Explanations for the decline in death and mortality rate
      • Improved nuteition
        • Better nutrition increased resistance to infection, and increased the chances of survival for those who did become infected.
      • Medical improvments
        • Infectious diseases used to be a big killer. Medical knowledge and techniques helped to reduce death rates. advances included introduction of antibiotics and widespread immunisation
      • Public health measures and environment improvements
        • Purer drinking water as laws were introduced to prevent adulteration of food and drink.
        • improvements in housing, less overcrowded accommodation
        • Improved sewage disposal methods
      • Smaller families, which reduces the rate of transmission of infection
      • People are more aware of health risks e.g. the negative effects of smoking. this has meant less people are smoking, as a result there is a reduced amount of people dying from smoking of people dying from smoking related diseases.
    • Explainations for why there was a big a gender gap in death rate.
      • Women may be living longer, because they have the hormone eastrogen, which coats fatty aids, which prevents them from having heart disease. unlike men's hormones they increase men's chances of having a heart attack which has narrowed the gap between gender death rates..
      • The gap between men and women's life expectancy is narrowing because medical advanaces se medical advanaces have helped to prevent men from having a heart attack.
      • Men went to work which involved dangerous jobs such as mining however, working conditions have now improved due to legislation. this means that there are very few men who die at work.
      • Men used to be the only 'breadwinner' for the family  which created stress and pressure. today, women now also go to work, meaning both males and females experience equal amounts of stress, for example they take on the same risks e.g. joining the army.
      • another reason why the gender gap has narrowed in death rates is because lifestyle factors have improved. this is because men traditionally had a poor diet, as they use to eat, drink alcohol and smoke excessively as it was socially acceptable for males but not for women. attitudes have changed, it is more socially acceptable for both genders to do these activities. which has resulted in narrowing the death rates.

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