Aging in Asia Findings from New and Emerging Data Initiatives (2012) / Chapter Skim
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2 Preparing for Population Aging in Asia: Strengthening the Infrastructure for Science and Policy--James P. Smith
2 Preparing for Population Aging in Asia: Strengthening the Infrastructure for Science and Policy--James P. Smith
Pages 17-35
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From page 17... ...
All rapidly aging countries face similar risks, but Asian countries have some advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are that compared to Europe and North America, Asian countries are now aging more rapidly at lower incomes with weak nonfamilial income and health security systems in place.
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From page 18... ...
Figure 2-1 highlights one of the forces contributing to the aging of the Asian population by plotting changing life expectancies for four large Asian countries -- China, India, Indonesia, and Japan -- over a 100-year period from 1950 to 2050. In 1950, average life expectancy was around 30 years in China, India, and Indonesia, but over the subsequent 60 years until the present time, life expectancy in all three countries improved dramatically -- to around age 70 in China and Indonesia and over age 60 in India.
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From page 19... ...
While declining mortality and especially fertility contribute to popu lation aging by making populations on average "older," it is important to keep in mind that both of these fundamental causes of population aging represent enormous progress in the human condition in these Asian countries. The extension of life and the decline in fertility are very beneficial trends driving population aging around the world and especially in Asia that lead to significant improvements in the human condition.
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From page 20... ...
. Figure 2-3 was 5% or lower in all four Asian countries.
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From page 21... ...
One potential avenue of adjustment to population aging is to delay retirement and to work to older ages. However, the data on male labor force participation rates in Figure 2-5 indicate that many men are already 14 12 10 Support Ratio 8 6 4 2 0 China Brazil India Japan Country 2000 2050 FIGURE 2-4 Support ratios (people aged 25–64/65 and older)
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From page 22... ...
and health transitions (especially into poorer health) in the subsequent years and the manner in which these economic and health domains mutually influence each other at older ages.2 The scope of the study has expanded significantly in the subsequent 20 years, in part by adding older and younger birth cohorts so that the HRS now attempts to be continuously population representative of Americans at least 50 years old.3 The key innovation of the HRS, which has been adopted in HRS-type surveys in the rest of the world, is that it broke with the tradition of other surveys that focused almost entirely on the concerns of a single domain of life and were run by a single academic discipline.
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From page 23... ...
Interviews were conducted with both partners/spouses in a household about their own lives and with the more knowledgeable of the two about their joint lives. This substantive template served as the model for all the other international aging surveys to follow.
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From page 24... ...
A decade after the HRS started, the second country to follow up on the HRS model was England with the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing. ELSA was designed to collect longitudinal data on health, disability, economic circumstances, social participation, and well-being, from a representative sample of the English population aged 50 and older (http://www.ifs.org.uk/elsa/)
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From page 25... ...
SHARE's big innovation is an insistence on very strict comparability of survey instruments within the SHARE countries. The latest addition in the European network of aging surveys is The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which completed its baseline field work in spring 2011 (http://www.tilda.tcd.ie)
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From page 26... ...
Sec ond, in some of these countries, such as China, at least in the formal wage and government sectors, rules for mandatory retirement often take place at younger ages than in Western Europe and the United States. Third, due to the central importance of local communities in many Asian countries not only in providing healthcare and income security but also in organizing social life, many of the Asian countries appended community surveys to the respondent interviews.
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From page 27... ...
The principal investigators have applied for a grant for a national longitudinal study on aging with the first baseline survey in 2012. The Japanese Study on Aging and Retirement is a panel of community-residing older Japanese adults.
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From page 28... ...
For example, by IFLS4, 40% of the original IFLS1 household population were 40 years old and older.6 In addition, as the population of the sample aged, the content of IFLS changed so that it was comparable with the other Asian aging surveys. In combina tion, the four waves of IFLS span a 14-year period of dramatic social and economic change in Indonesia and provide detailed longitudinal data on individuals, households, and communities that will greatly enhance the study of adults 45 years and older.
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From page 29... ...
Asian HRS Studies English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) South American Studies Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)
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From page 30... ...
While the HRS international network has maintained its core focus on the domains of economics and health, its scientific scope has steadily expanded with significantly improved measurement of cognition, psychosocial risk factors, biomarker-based measures of health, and relevant dimensions of the community These domains were seen not only as important in older populations around the world, but also central in understanding the critical health and economic decisions that older people must make. MEASUREMENT IN ASIA Measuring Health Domains in Asia One of the great difficulties in measuring health status in most Asian countries is that one cannot rely only on self-reports of respondents.
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From page 31... ...
The importance of this comprehensive measurement of economic resources is seen in Table 2-1 using data from the 2008 CHARLS pilot survey.8 This table displays the distribution of household income, household wealth, and household consumption of CHARLS individuals. The final two rows display two measures of inequality in the distribution of resources among CHARLS pilot respondents.
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From page 32... ...
Monitoring Change over Time One of the benefits from these new sets of aging surveys is that they will provide a platform to monitor on a comparable basis the changes that take place in the future in this set of Asian countries. Given how dynamic the countries are, change will be the order of the day, but all changes may not be positive.
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From page 33... ...
The full set of HRS international surveys have adhered to that principle, with the Asian surveys often among the most exemplary. Before this, the tradition in many of the Asian countries in this network was very much the opposite, with negative consequences for the advancement of science and policy for social scientists within these countries.
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From page 34... ...
The HRS has also responded to some of the major policy initiatives in the United States by introducing modules that have enabled the monitoring of the impact of key policy changes in healthcare use and expenditures. As new policy initiatives emerge in the Asian countries in this network -- which happens at much greater frequency than in the United States -- the Asian surveys should respond and become a major platform for monitoring and evaluating the impacts.
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From page 35... ...
. Socioeconomic success and health in later life: Evidence from the Indonesia Family Life Survey.
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