Health and Socio-Economics of the Elderly

Aging is reviewed by a variety of disciplines; demographers, sociologists, economists, health scientists, and politicians. However, there are still great disputes over aging because of its economic roles, and health expenditures. Several questions about aging should be answered. Is aging an illness? Are aged people a burden to community? Is it a threat, or an achievement? (1). There are opposite views, either clinically or economically developed with regard to these questions, about aged people’s health and their health expenditures. Clinical view of aging is determined by dominance of chronic disease. These types of illness, was believed to belong to developed countries, well-to-do class, and aged populations. Today, however, developing countries, working class, and even young generation are suffered from theses illnesses (2). Aged people are neither homogeneous nor suffer similar pattern of illnesses. Moreover, gender and sex affect the health status of men and women differently. Apparently in old ages, socio-economic and gender gaps, are widen because of feminization of elderly and poverty.