Elsevier

Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Volume 29, October 2017, Pages 49-53
Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Asian pearls
Population trends and public awareness of healthy and pathological ageing in India: A brief overview

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2017.04.012Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Conduct more nation-wide demographic studies to assess impact of an ageing populous.

  • Boost awareness of healthy ageing among family caregivers and health professionals.

  • Encourage adoption of healthy lifestyle practices to potentially stave off dementia.

  • Increase integration among caregivers, those with dementia, and health professionals.

Abstract

India is poised to experience dramatic shifts in the age and makeup of its population. Specifically, projections havehighlighted an increase in both the percentage of the elderly and those suffering from dementia-related disorders.Previous studies have examined the demographics of aging, its impact on the healthcare infrastructure and recommended policies to better cater to the elderly. This article focuses on a summary of these findings in relation to key stakeholders in the care of the elderly including mental health professionals, family caregivers, and public health officials. We broadly conclude that there exists a general shallow level of understanding of what constitutes pathological aging (i.e. dementia) across all stakeholders, and this creates a cascade of effects including delays in treatment seeking and barriers in conducting and having accurate demographic studies. Moreover, addressing this knowledge gap can help enhance communication between these three stakeholders in the hopes of the following: (a) increased education and awareness, (b) faster seeking of care, and (c) earlier diagnoses leading to better opportunities to collect accurate demographics of those suffering from dementia-related disorders.

Section snippets

General introduction

Globally, the number of older adults is expected to increase in the coming years (United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2007). The World Health Organization (WHO), in its World Report on Ageing and Health, reported that low-and-middle income countries (LAMICs) will experience an increasing burden from communicable and non-communicable diseases given the number of people reaching advanced ages (World Health Organization, 2015). Supporting this assertion, current forecasts

Ageing demographics in India

The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India was designed to comprehensively understand the economic, social, psychological and health aspects of ageing. Early results from this unpublished study suggest that the elderly in India are subject to a wide array of health, financial and social inequalities (Arokiasamy et al., 2011). Specifically, it is estimated that in 2021, 9.9% (133.32 million) of the Indian population will be aged above 60 years with this percentage projected to rise to 17.3% (300.96

The general population

While evidence is limited, some have suggested that Indian healthcare professionals possess a poor understanding of the ageing process (Gangadharan, 2003). From available evidence however, it is reasonable to assume a similar level of understanding amongst the general population who have not acquired medical expertise. To our knowledge, no study has examined the general population’s awareness of healthy ageing. However, there is consistent evidence that the general population treats severe

Knowledge transmission as a means to improve treatment and care

While on one hand there is poor knowledge of the behavioral symptoms of dementia, on the other hand, there is acknowledgement that diabetes mellitus and hypertension are common health related ailments. The knowledge-gap existing between these disease types may arise from a combination of high prevalence rates of diabetes (Ramachandran and Snehalatha, 2009), recent efforts by the Indian government to proactively address the projected increase of people that will suffer from diabetes (Shetty, 2012

Critical factors in devising future healthcare policies for the elderly

The WHO has identified six priority conditions within LAMIC’s responsible for significant burden in terms of morbidity; dementia being one of them. The WHO’s mhGAP Intervention Guide is a useful guide to reduce the treatment gap with explicit algorithms of evidence based-treatments tailored to individuals, keeping in mind the prevalent socio-cultural practices in that region (World Health Organization, 2010). Interventions for dementia include a flowchart for identification, assessment and

General discussion

India is experiencing a dramatic demographic shift towards an increasingly ageing population (Varghese and Patel, 2003). In this brief overview of demographic trends and public awareness of healthy and pathological ageing (defined as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders), the following key observations emerged: (a) while epidemiological research is available from regional sections of India, what is lacking from the larger research corpus is a national demographic study of the

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors.

Acknowledgement

None.

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