Aging is a problem for individuals as it has a massive effect on the productivity and well-being of an individual, and on families who often have to allocate resources to look after the aging members of the family. Aging, despite some positives, is overall, a negative eventuality for everyone.
Beyond the individual and family, companies and institutions also have an issue with an aging workforce as waves of retirees leave.
Countries that experience a rapidly increasing average age of their citizens are also severely affected by the aging population, as young people pay for the increasing numbers of the elderly.
Aging is a natural process that refers to the physical, cognitive, and social changes that occur in individuals over time. We are more concerned with physiological and psychological health changes in a body over time. There are multiple stages and you can read about stages of human development in terms of physical, psychological, neural, and other changes here.
Measuring age
Measuring age is not as straightforward as it seems. The biological age of an individual could be very different from their chronological age. It is possible to practically age backward biologically by implementing some lifestyle changes, but that works mainly if you’re living a very unhealthy lifestyle. Measuring age is important because it allows us to see what interventions are working and allows us to come up with holistic strategies for slowing down aging (and even possibly stopping or reversing it).
Business and national concerns with an aging population
There are also concerns about aging for businesses and nations, you can read more about them below.
Changes in global demographics are a concern for many countries and should not be ignored.
As people are getting older and have fewer children, the shifting average age means that younger people will have a lot of weight on their shoulders.
Businesses are also looking with concern at the aging workforce.
There are pros and cons of the increased average age across the workforce but companies still need to adapt.
People decide to start a family later in life, this is a global trend that carries plenty of risk for countries and businesses.
Falling sperm count in men and decreasing fertility of women from lifestyle, environmental and stress factors is also on the rise