Poverty and Ageing in Africa

Ageing in Africa is both an economic and social problem. Why?

• The bread winners are dying due to HIV/AIDS (20-55 years old).
• Grand parents are forced to take over parental roles.
• Their own needs are neglected.
• Follow these links for more information http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php, http://findarticles.com, www.nai.uu.se/events/conferences/ageing/index.xml

The situation of poverty and ageing in Africa is compounded by the fact that the few healthy productive people migrate to developed countries for better wages and living conditions. This results in;

• Lack of family support for the elderly, hence lonely.
• Lack of a family support system leads to development of NCDs such as high blood pressure, depression, and many other problems.
• Lack of family support also results in poor nutrition http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi.reprint.

A combination of old age and poverty is dangerous. Whereas the life expectancy in Africa is around 35 years, this figure does not account for the outliers. These are people that live up to 100 years. For example, my own grandmother is well over 110 years. The challenges are:

• Lack of proper medical and nutritional care,
• Isolation leads to dispair,
• Dispair leads to NCDs