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Aging Society (aging + society)
Selected AbstractsCurrent admission policies of long-term care facilities in JapanGERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2003Yoshihisa Hirakawa Background: The rapidly aging society in Japan is putting demands on long-term care facilities for the elderly who require care. In Europe and the USA, there is ongoing reform of elderly care services, but the establishment of system based on social insurance is still being explored in Japan. Methods: Two studies were conducted, the first in 2000 and the second in 2001, involving 91 long-term care facilities located in or around the city of Nagoya. Questionnaires were sent to facility directors, chief administrators or head nurses to inquire about their admission policies for six major patient categories. Two educational lectures on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and urinary incontinence were given between the distribution of the questionnaires. Results: For all six categories featured on the questionnaire, the acceptance rate in both studies was the highest in geriatric hospitals, and an improvement in acceptance rates was seen in the second study in all three types of care facilities. When the effect the lectures had on changes in admission policies at these facilities was examined, no correlation was found. Conclusions: Lectures should be given to facility management and personnel to raise their awareness of key issues and improve their efficiency. [source] Social Change and Social Policy in JapanINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF JAPANESE SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Masayuki Fujimura Abstract This paper aims to present and discuss social change and social policy in Japan after the mid-20th century from a sociological viewpoint. Japanese social change and social policy from the mid-20th century onward can be categorized into three models in chronological order: escape from mass poverty by means of industrialization, improvement of the social security system to establish a welfare state, and parallel progress of aspiration for a welfare society and workfare. Defined concretely, these are (1) the period that established and improved social security, which started immediately after the end of World War II and ended in 1973, when Japan began to suffer from low growth after enjoying high growth; (2) the period in which finance for social security was adjusted, halfway through which the country experienced a bubble economy; and (3) the period after the 1990s, in which the structural reform of social security went hand-in-hand with labor policy and the advent of globalization. In each of the three periods, the direction of social policy was affected by factors that caused changes in such areas as industrial structure (the decline of agriculture), demographic structure (an aging society), and family structure and work pattern (the growing trend of nuclear families, single-person households, and irregular employment). In Japan, life security now attracts increasing attention, and employment security rather than social security has been the central issue. As it is greatly affected by globalization, employment security grows less conspicuous and makes the vulnerability of social security grow more conspicuous. Social policy has the potential to become an area with which to struggle for national integration and fissures between social groups. [source] AGING-RELATED INFLUENCES ON ACTIVITY PATTERNS IN THE SUPRAHYOID MUSCLES DURING SWALLOWING: PRELIMINARY ANALYSISJOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 4 2007YOZO MIYAOKA ABSTRACT Swallowing-related muscle activity patterns were compared between an elderly group and young and middle-aged groups to evaluate whether aging affects activity patterns of swallowing-related muscles. A new technique for evaluation of muscular activity patterns (TP technique) was used for the suprahyoid (SH) muscles during swallowing of ordinary agar and gelatin in the three groups (five subjects each). The evaluations for these test foods in the elderly group were similar to those in the young and middle-aged groups, and statistical examination showed no significant differences among the three groups. In addition, other evaluations based on the TP technique (InP, which were calculated by subtracting the preceding TP,10 values from TP) in the elderly group differed in part from those of the other two groups for gelatin. The present results suggest that the overall activity pattern of swallowing-related muscles is basically preserved in the elderly, but slight, partial changes occur with age. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS An aging society may increase the demand for production of special foods adjusted to some of the elderly. To respond to this demand, we need careful analysis of the characteristics of chewing and swallowing functions of the elderly. The present study showed slight and partial changes in the activity patterns of swallowing-related muscles with age and that the "TP technique" the authors developed was useful to detect the changes. The detection suggests that the analysis of activity patterns with our technique can help designs for production of foods specially for the elderly. [source] Alan Greenspan on the Economic Implications of Population AgingPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 4 2004Article first published online: 15 DEC 200 At the 2004 annual symposium of central bank leaders sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, devoted his opening remarks on 27 August to a discussion of the economic implications of population aging. The full text of his remarks is reproduced below. Greenspan's high prestige and great influence on US economic policy lend special interest to his views on this much-discussed subject (see also the next Documents item in this issue). He outlines the coming demographic shift in the United States in language that is characteristically cautious and qualified. (The elderly dependency ratio will "almost certainly" rise as the baby boom generation retires, Greenspan says, although elsewhere he terms the process, more accurately, inexorable.) The main factor responsible for population aging he identifies as the decline of fertility. Immigration is an antidote, but, to be effective, its size would have to be much larger than is envisaged in current projections. Greenspan's assessment of the economic consequences of the changing age structure highlights the prospect of a deteriorating fiscal situation in the United States: chronic deficits in the Social Security program over the long haul, assuming that existing commitments for benefits per retiree are met, and even greater difficulties for the health care system for the elderly,Medicare,in which the effects of increasing numbers in old age are amplified by advances in medical technology and the bias inherent in the current system of subsidized third-party payments. The sober outline of policy choices imposed by population aging,difficult in the United States, but less so, Greenspan notes, than in Europe and Japan,underlies the need for counteracting the declining growth of the population of labor force age through greater labor force participation and later retirement. Beyond that, growth of output per worker can provide the key "that would enable future retirees to maintain their expected standard of living without unduly burdening future workers." This requires continuation of policies that enhance productivity, such as deregulation and globalization, and greater investment. In turn, the latter presupposes greater domestic saving, both personal and by the government, as the United States cannot "continue indefinitely to borrow saving from abroad." Demographic aging requires a new balance between workers and retirees. Curbing benefits once bestowed is difficult: only benefits that can be delivered should be promised. Public programs should be recalibrated, providing incentives for individuals to adjust to the inevitable consequences of an aging society. [source] The Coming of an Aged Society in Taiwan: Issues and PoliciesASIAN SOCIAL WORK AND POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2010Wan-I Lin For most advanced industrialized countries, an aging society has been a national issue since the 1970s. However, Taiwan was not aware of this issue until 1993, the year when the old-age population reached 7.0%. As an aging nation under the definition of the United Nations, the Taiwanese government began to pay more attention to the aging population, and executed several policies in response to this demographic transition. First, this article examines Taiwan's demographic transition from an aging society to an aged society, and its impacts. Second, it demonstrates the responses of Taiwan to the coming of an aged society and explores crucial issues that Taiwanese society is facing. [source] | ||||||||||