Ageing in Nigeria and a Critical Analysis of Article by Khan Et Al - Assignment Example

Assignments: Ageing In Nigeria and a Critical Analysis of Article by Khan et al and al Affiliation Department Date Abstract Aging is today affecting both the developing and the developed nations alike. With regards to the world population, rapid aging is responsible for at least 11% of the world population that is today 60 years and above (United Nations Population Fund, 2015, p. n.p). Through such increased number of aged people in the world, it is clear that world development has been successful given various present factors. The main factors contributing to increased number of aged people in my country include nutrition, education, sanitation, health care, and economic well-being. In order to raise the awareness on aging, harness population aging opportunities, and dealing with challenges Is Aging Of Population A Big Threat for Health Systems In Your Country? Briefly Mention About the Healthcare System in Your Own Country In Nigeria, the public healthcare is a fundamental attribute of the nation’s security. This is because healthcare works to offer not just adequate but also timely medical care that guarantees monitoring, tracking, and control of diseases outbreak. The country’s health care system has experienced numerous downfalls despite the nation’s strategic position in Africa (Osain, 2011, p. 470). The overall rating is an underserved healthcare sphere characterized by inadequate health facilities such as personnel, medical equipment, and healthcare centers. Furthermore, the weak nature of healthcare services in Nigeria is evident in the nation’s services fragmentation, absence of coordination, and deplorable care quality. Another weakness in this healthcare system is its dearth of resources including supplies and drugs, decaying and inadequate infrastructure, and resource distribution inequity. These findings were obtained from the 2009 Communique of the Nigerian conference for national health that also revealed lack of roles and responsibilities clarity among different government levels. In addition, issues in the healthcare system of any country are bound to attract considerable political attention. In Nigeria, this attention varies from one place to the other. In order to change this state of events, the transformation model proposed is that of creating and sustaining information-oriented and patient-centered healthcare system that reliably offers high quality care. Through the investment in and use of timely health information, it is possible to combat any possible health menace in numerous functions that include among others, public health (Anon., 2010). Additionally, substantial investment in information would result in effective tracking health insecurity that would endanger national security. For instance, today Nigeria enjoys effective tracking and management of communicable diseases outbreaks that used to be a threat not just to individuals but also to the national security. As a result, it is possible to track outbreaks and step up medical treatment and preventative measures reducing disease spread (Dougherty & Conway, 2008, p. 2319). The presence of timely and accurate medical information in the Nigerian medical care sector goes a long way in reinforcing healthcare workforce, training and managing personnel for effective health sector performance, and avoidance of various communication and health lapses threats. Besides communicable diseases, the Nigerian healthcare system experiences numerous outbreaks in healthcare as well as mas chemical poisoning for years and this calls for the need to deal with the issue. Write an Essay Critically Highlighting the population ageing and Health needs According to the United Nations Population Fund (n.p), population aging is not just an issue affecting one nation in the world. On the contrary, rapid aging is responsible for at least 11% of the world population that is today 60 years and above (United Nations Population Fund, 2015, p. n.p). The main factors contributing to increased number of aged people in my country include nutrition, education, sanitation, health care, and economic well-being. In order to raise the awareness on aging, harness population aging opportunities, and dealing with challenges. Oliver et al (2014, p. 1) the aging population have introduced pressure on the existing health and care services, causing them to fail to keep up with this dramatic demographic shift. The pressure mostly affects the hospital medical specialties around one organ diseases while the aging population present complex and multiple conditions. In addition, the primary care consultations and systems of payment provide very low investments, lower quality care compared to other conditions occurring during midlife, and fewer incentive systems. According to Productivity Commission (2011, p. 116), substantial evidence of age discrimination and ageism in care and health services ranges from patronizing conduct to poor treatment access. Furthermore, there is an inadequate capacity in the community to offer intermediate support and care services that assist older persons to remain well, recover from critical episodes, and crises management (Peter, 2014, p. 23). Peter (2014, p.23) highlights that, in order to meet the health needs of the aging population, the government’s support for the social insurance of the elderly led to unexpected government spending resulting in fiscal deficit. Consequently, the nation is now in wider economic crisis, and sufficient proof that aging populations require substantial resources that account for significant implication on the nation’s economy. In the 21st century, population aging is also as a result of lowering fertility rates, and increasing life expectancy. This then results in steady rise in the population of the older people particularly in the developing nations such as ours. Consequently, Maharaj (2012, p. 211) points out that the society is subjected to inevitable contributions to assist the aging such as volunteering, caregiving, and transferring cultural traditions to younger generations. Conversely, the older persons in the society end up being a source of conflict resolution and leadership within families, emergency situations, and in communities (Maharaj, 2012). However, for developing nations, the elderly are more vulnerable with poor networks for social support, abuse and discrimination, lack of income, denial and social exclusion, and eventually poverty with age. In this nation, the failure by health leaders and policy makers to adequately plan for changes to come will be overwhelmed by the implications of globalization such as overburdened systems of health care, stressed systems of annuity, and workers scarcity (Maharaj, 2012). However, timely actions and responses to the issue of aging would provide high chances of attaining possible benefits of the ageing tendency such as making use of the huge social capital of the older people. In my country, the increasing number of older persons, 60 years and above, and the decreasing fertility rate has led to overdependence on a proportionally lessening reserve of younger relatives (United Nations Population Fund, 2015). Like in many other developing nations, children are largely depended on for income for the older persons and while the present generation of adults depends on filial support. The decreased number of resources expected to satisfy the needs of the old poses the risk of catastrophic breakdown in elder care and relevant actions are required to direct additional resources in favor of the old. Furthermore, the predictions by Tilly & Wiener (2002) reveal that as of 2050, the number of older persons is expected to increase by about 135% in the United States while the population of those above 85 years will be the most in need of long term and health care services and their population is expected to rise to 4.8%. Critically appraise both the demand and supply side of economics to reduce the health problem Like most world nations, Nigeria experiences great pressure on its economy due to the need to take care of the elderly (Olaniyan, et al., 2011, p. 212). On the demand side, the elderly persons in Nigeria causes an increment in the number of people who consume more than they can produce, thus elevating their exposure to poverty during this time. Unlike young children who are dependent on their children, the elderly in Nigeria have few options concerning their income sources and are less productive. Consequently, the elderly are left to depend on their savings and the assistance from family transfers. Furthermore, Olaniyan, et al (2011) reveals that at 2006 out of the 54% of the dependent population in Nigeria, about 25% is 60 years and above, and the nation anticipating that this population would continue to grow. The implication of the growth in this population was that the financial expenditure on Nigeria’s health would increase causing poverty, and many families experiencing difficulties in the payment of their health bills. Since households depend on their incomes to care for their elderly, this means that there is lessened pressure on the government to pay for such bills. The healthcare demands for the elderly are higher compared to the needs of other age groups while their average capability to perform their daily duties productively slowly erodes with time until they are completely dependent on other for care including residential and prolonged hospital stays, and at times till death. Furthermore, elderly persons in Nigeria are exposed to depression given the presence of poor living conditions, poor physical health, and low social support. This worsens with low access to health services amongst the mentally ill, and the nation’s life expectancy of 50 years for women, and 48 among women (Pew Research Center, 2014). For those who pass this age, they present a resilient subgroup and presents the highest prevalence of major depressive disorder especially amongst the elderly of Yoruba-speaking areas (Afolabi, et al., 2007, p. 957). On the supply side, the Nigerian government’s social security system is poorly established and most of the elderly lack the security programme and require assistance to survive (Olaniyan, et al., 2011, p. 213). Consequently, this causes a rise in poverty and overburdened healthcare expenditure with public transfers to the elderly being very constrained. According to Olaniyan, et al., (2011, p. 214), Nigeria compared to other developing nations such as Kenya, Ghana and Uganda still spends less on healthcare for the elderly. However, this no does not ease the pressure to survive on the elderly as the high levels of poverty and irregular dissemination of health services, and shortage of trained health professionals, nurses, and physicians in rural areas lowers the life expectancy. This is because lack of access to effective health services increases lowers the chances of accessing quality health care especially due to the high costs involved. In addition, the rising number of untreated or poorly treated old age diseases increases the death rates for the elderly (Olaniyan, et al., 2011, p. 217). However, the future of Nigeria’s health care system is among the promising as this nation has a very huge share of children in its population. According to Pew Research Center (2014), this young population will age in future and presents a beneficial demographic to Nigeria’s economy. With its young population, Nigeria population today is characterized by more than one-third of people who are confident about the standards of their old age while it is today one of the nations ranked as economically doing well (Pew Research Center, 2014). Assignment #2: Paper Critique Explanation of the Key Objectives of the Study Khan et al., 2013 Amidst a drastically ageing world population, one of the objectives of this paper was to evaluate the specific issues that associated with retirement. Some main issues under consideration were pension and retirement plans, quality and wellbeing of life, and voluntary contribution and social support. Today, the aging nature of the world population is a reality just as is the increasing life expectancy of many in varying parts of the globe. The reality of ageing is causing researchers and policy makers to reevaluate the relevance of public policies such as retirement and employability, crisis and illness, intergenerational support, and resource transfer. Understanding public policies is in efforts to curb the impact of lessening willingness of families to support the elderly subject to their care support. The common form of implications aging on the elderly is great suffering amidst social and economic change such as long-term demand for care in residential and home settings. Aging is also link directly to the outstanding challenge to national health care service globally. In order to understand the issues around retirement, Khan, et al (2013, p. 50) sought to understand how the cost of care was borne upon retirement, and the person responsible for the ultimate bearing of the caring cost upon retirement. Justification of the main purpose of the research in relation to health economics One issue surrounding aging and retirement is challenges of adjusting to the new form of life. For the veterans, adjustment challenges call for transition therapy and connection to counselling in effort to have Veterans find solutions to life well with age, retirement and commence a new life phase (Kaplan & Berkman, 2015). Retiring can be an exciting phase in human life as it brings new opportunities such as time to travel, additional time with family and friends, and new hobbies. Beside these opportunities that introduce a sense of clarity and novel purpose, aging also comes with challenges such as worries regarding health and finances, a feeling of unhappiness, easily getting tired, loss of one’s capability to see or hear, slow sex response. Consequently, most veteran, in efforts to adjust, many find themselves in stress and trauma that calls for additional spending towards medical care. However, the effect of retirement on a veteran depends on factors such as the reasons behind the manufacturing and attitude towards retirement. Besides trauma and stress, aging population introduces the concept of a fast growing burden on noncommunicable diseases; changing work and retirement patterns; evolution of social systems; difficult economic crisis; and alteration of the family structures. With the rising need for proper and quality care for aged patients, nations are reconsidering their social insurance expenditures while evaluating them to understand their sustainability. The sustainability of social insurance requires the input of novel fiscal approaches to accommodate the changing world. For some governments, sustainability comes with long term planning in efforts to closing the pace at which the population is aging. While some nations may not manage to respond to the pressure input by the need for sustainable aging management systems, sustainable aging management is the source of numerous opportunities such economic expansion and cross-national partnerships. This means that by effectively responding to aging, nations avoid the occurrence of overwhelming social and financial costs. The Finding of the Research by Khan et al Through its utilization of descriptive statistical analysis this paper managed to understand the qualities of the selected respondents for the subgroups. First, Khan et al identified that across different world nations, there is huge variation in the perception of the concept of age over time. Consequently, it is difficult to confidently claim that there is a single universally accepted definition of the term old. However, aging throughout the world is identified as dependent on factors such as sex, age, socioeconomic status, employment, and health. For instance, respondents differed in their meaning of mean becoming old and life expectancy with the largest difference being in china where most respondents felt that the mean old age was 49.8 while the life expectancy was around 71.1. However, India had the least gap between respondents with the mean old age being 55.9 while the life expectancy was about 61.0. The variations in the perception of mean old age and life expectancy was also evident by country, gender, and age cohorts, and employment condition. Secondly, through sophisticated statistical techniques, the report findings indicated that amongst the elderly in the world, 44% of them believed in they should bear their own financial costs, while only 5% believed that their financial costs should be the responsibility of their employers. The research findings proved the predictions right as only 46% of the participants agreed to pay their own care as they aged, and around 4% reported that their employers had carried the burden of paying for their care. These findings clearly reveal that most of the respondents would, at all costs, incur the costs of their healthcare during old age. This differs from the global perception by some people that their employers or government were willing to bear such costs upon retirements. However, for some of the respondents, their children would take care of them during old age. When analyzed in terms of age, employment status, and gender, these findings indicated that the majority of the study respondents believe in paying their health care costs during old age, 20.64% believed in would be the role of their children, 29.95 % believed it was the role of the government, and only 5% expected their employers to pay for them. The exploratory analysis used by Khan et al (2013, p. 59) also presented the findings that there was a negative relationship between age and gender in terms of understanding how the costs of care would be met. This meant that majority of the respondents were females with the least likelihood of previously being in the workforce. In addition, exploratory analysis found out that even for those veterans who believed that they would take care of their costs during old age, there was an expectation that someone else would assist them in bearing those costs. For the males who constituted the largest group of respondents who had been in previous employment, their perception was that they would and not should, bear their own retirement financial costs. The fact that they would differed from the perception of the currently employed who believed they should bear their own financial costs. The attitude that the employed persons should incur their own retirement costs was attributed to the financial well-off, and confidence in the employed persons compared to those who were previously employed. Using correlation the study findings demonstrate that age significantly affected the both the issue of should and will bear retirement costs. These finding was consistent with the exploratory analysis where males demonstrated positive relationship between genders and should bear costs and only a negligible number reported they would bear the care costs. Correlation analysis also indicated that employment was crucial in determining should and will attitudes, while regions indicated variations in should and will attitudes especially with gender. At the country level, the ‘should’ and will incur cost attitudes differed in terms of current working status. Five limitations of the study First, the study fails to provide the relationship between bearing the retirement costs and the duration of employment. Understanding this relationship would have greatly shed light in understanding the gap in attitudes amongst the employed respondents and those who previously belonged to a workforce. Consequently, the findings would assist in understanding the factors contributing to the change in attitudes and device effective strategies to manage the situation. Secondly, the both surveys were limited to include only a few questions for the respondents. The implication was that the study only involved limited variables, thus leaving room for future research that incorporated other crucial variables like employment duration and job within the respective samples in each world nation involved. Thirdly, the research was characterized by a shared perception that adult children would assist their elderly parents in meeting their retirement cost during their old age. However, the full exploration of this concept was not possible in this research and calls for further future exploration by researchers. Using findings from such research, would nations would manage to have the veterans that it was crucial for them to accept to ultimately bear the costs of care upon retirement. United Kingdom is one of the nation where the old are understand the need to pay their own retirement costs and not burden their children with such costs. Fourthly, the study is also limits itself to the traditional family structure where younger generations agree to be with their parents to take care of them. This does not remain the case, particularly in developing nations where the family structure is disorganized with children moving within or to other countries in search of employment and are never willing to send money back home in support of their own elderly relatives. Finally, the study involved more males compared to females especially with regards to current working or previously working status. Relevant economic Questions i. What economic reasons would be responsible for the confidence gap subject to people’s attitudes towards incurring their retirement costs? ii. What policies are in place in nations such as the UK where people understand that they are responsible for bearing their own retirement costs unlike depending on the government or adult children? iii. What is a valid sample size to guaranteed reliability and validity of the attitudes towards retirement and aging globally? iv. What implications would the variations in the economies of different world nations have on the understanding of retirement and aging perceptions? v. What factors contribute to the variations in attitudes towards retirement and aging between gender and age across countries and geographical regions in the world? Comment on the methods adopted in the paper and what alternative economic model could be done Correlation analysis facilitated the understanding of positive and negative relationships between age, employment, and gender on attitudes towards ageing. Logistic regression method facilitated the understanding of positive and negative variations on a national level amongst five world nations. For effective correlational analysis, exploratory analysis offered causal relationship amongst the variables selected in the global dataset, both dependent and independent variables. Since the dataset is huge, the confidence interval is the defined ratio within which each variable must meet in order to accurately represent the reliable hypothesis testing. In this case, the p values demonstrate the error or variance from the confidence interval that was of interest to define the cause of significant difference between you, your children, employer, and government. Bibliography Afolabi, E., Gureje, O. & Kola, L., 2007. Epidemiology of Major Depressive Disorder in Elderly Nigerians in the Ibadan Study of Ageing: A Community Based Survey. The Lancet, Volume 370, pp. 957-964. Anon., 2010. Nigerian Health Policies. [Online] Available at: http://www.photius.com/countries/nigeria/society/nigeria_society_primary_health_care_~10006.html [Accessed 17 April 2015]. Dougherty, D. & Conway, P., 2008. The “3T’s” road map to transform US health care. The “how” of high-quality care. JAMA, Volume 299, pp. 2319-2321. Kaplan, D. & Berkman, B., 2015. Effects of Life Transitions on Older People. Merkmanua;, 17 April, p. n.p. Khan, H., Leeson, G. & Findlay, H., 2013. Attitudes Towards Bearing The Cost of Care in Later Life Across the World. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 21(1), pp. 49-69. Maharaj, P., 2012. Aging and Health in Africa. 1st ed. Berlin: Springer. Olaniyan, O., Olayiwola, S. & Odubunmi, 2011. The Impact of Health Expenditure on the Elderly in Nigeria. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 8(4), pp. 212-218. Oliver, D., Foot, C. & Humphries, R., 2014. Making our Health and Care Systens Fit for and Ageing Population, London: The Kings Fund. Osain, M., 2011. The Nigerian health care system: Need for integrating adequate medical intelligence and surveillance systems. Journal of Pharmacological Bioallied Sciences, 3(4), pp. 470-478. Peter, L.-S., 2014. Population ageing and international development: From generalisation to evidence. 1st ed. London: Policy Press. Pew Research Center, 2014. Attitudes about Aging: A Global Perspective: In a Rapidly Graying World, Japanese Are Worried, Americans Aren’t. [Online] Available at: http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/01/30/attitudes-about-aging-a-global-perspective/ [Accessed 2015 April 2015]. Productivity Commission, 2011. Caring for Older Australians, Canberra: Productivity Commission. Tilly, J. & Wiener, J., 2002. Population ageing in the United States of America: implications for public programmes. International Journal of Epidemiol, 31(4), pp. 776-781. United Nations Population Fund, 2015. Ageing. [Online] [Accessed 16 April 2015]. Read More