The role of the elderly in society

Abstract

The discipline of gerontology has, in recent years, aroused much interest all over the world. The dramatic increase in the number of elderly in this century is witnessing a phenomenon unique in history. In several countries, for the first time, an entire generation of people aged sixty years and over have reached significant percentages of their country/ s population. The United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Japan, to name but a few, will have between 23 to 30 per cent of their population in the sixty plus age group by the year 2025. Malta is no exception. Though Malta when compared to other countries is not one of the countries with a very high number of elderly people, one cannot ignore the fact, that it is not among those countries with a high youth population. Various factors have contributed to this boom in the ageing population. In the first half of the 20th century, our families were quite numerous. For centuries Malta has always been known to be a Catholic country and its inhabitants to be ardent practising Catholics who observed the religious doctrinal opposition to birth control methods of mechanical or chemical nature. These factors contributed to high birth rates. However, even though the percentage of new born babies was high, many of them died at a very tender age. Diseases were widespread and the world of medicine was still grappling to find solutions for these ailments. Consequently few lived to a ripe old age and those who did survive were considered with amazement for their achievement. Today due to widespread birth control practices the number of children in a family has been drastically reduced for various reasons. On the other hand, medicine has performed gigantic steps in overcoming serious health problems. Therefore disease and mortality have have significantly decreased. So while the birth rate ls decreasing, as compared to the other age groups, the demographic situation portrays an increase at all age levels, including the aged themselves. In fact, tomorrow/'s elderly are those adults who today are in their prime, the 25 to 40-year-olds who form the greater number of people in the work force.