Aging and Disability: The Need of A Bridge To Promote Wellbeing, Quality Of Life And Participation

Abstract

In the last decades there has been a progressive aging of the population, known as “demographic revolution” or “demographic transition”. As a consequence of the worldwide progressive aging of population and of the increasing of general life expectancy, the relationship between aging and disability became a very important one and received a huge interest in research for its consequences on participation, inclusion and quality of life of ageing people and for its consequences on socio-sanitary organizations. The aim of this paper is to analyze this relationship and to discuss consequences on participation, inclusion and quality of life of ageing people, according to recent conceptual models of disability and active ageing. According to previous papers this relationship could be considered in two ways: ageing with disability (which refers to people living with long-term effects of disabling conditions acquired from birth to middle age) and disability with ageing (which refers to people which disabling conditions acquired later or age-related conditions), but newer papers proposed a convergence of these two approaches, taking into account the similarities and the differences between the two ways.

Ageing and COVID-19: What Is the Role for Elderly People?

“…Italy is one the oldest countries in Europe and in the world and now it is also one of the first countries that are fighting against COVID-19. In our country, the increasing life expectancy (80.5 for males and 84.9 for females, with a total life expectancy of 82.9) [1] has led to very positive consequences for health and the well-being of elderly people: a very high number of older adults live and act independently in their daily life, even if they have one or more than one chronic disease [2][3][4]. These women and men represent a very important reference for their social, economic and cultural roles in the society.…”

“…With this paper, we aim to contribute to the discussion in the field of consequences of COVID-19′s outbreak, and we would like to highlight the risks of ageism, the need to put elderly people in the center of any interventions in the outbreak phase of COVID-19 and the need to personalize intervention for elderly people [4,9]. In agreement with Lloyd-Sherlock and colleagues [10], we propose some hints of analysis, starting from the ongoing experience in Italy:…”

Enfermedad por coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) y edadismo: revisión narrativa de la literatura

“…Independientemente de las acciones solidarias ofrecidas, es un colectivo que ha necesitado protección, respeto y apoyo ante esta compleja situación. Sin embargo, la respuesta social, en determinadas situaciones y ámbitos, no ha estado a la altura de su ejemplaridad y ha existido el riesgo de que las personas mayores en la fase de brote de COVID-19 no hayan recibido una intervención personalizada 6 ; de que la edad haya podido representar un factor negativo durante la pandemia, generado una asimetría en la atención, y de que la disponibilidad limitada de recursos y la situación de prácticamente colapso en muchos medios hospitalarios haya podido producir situaciones de discriminación por edad y, por lo tanto, de edadismo. Entendido el edadismo como estereotipos, prejuicios y discriminación hacia las personas debido a su edad 7 , 8 .…”

Estado actual de investigación en parálisis cerebral y envejecimiento: revisión sistemática | Current state of research in cerebral palsy and aging: systematic review

“…En los países occidentales actualmente se está haciendo frente a un cambio demográfico que está modificando las estructuras sociales hasta ahora conocidas (Coyle y Mutchler, 2017), a causa del progresivo envejecimiento poblacional. Este cambio es de tal magnitud que algunos autores lo denominan como "revolución demográfica" o "transición demográfica" por su efecto en las políticas sociales (Petretto et al, 2019). Este cambio demográfico afecta también a las personas con discapacidad en general, así como a las personas con discapacidad intelectual (Ng et al, 2015) y a colectivos como el de parálisis cerebral (PC), en particular.…”