Yadav S S
Humanities and Social Studies Education, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Singapore Med J. 2001 Aug;42(8):360-7.
Singapore's elderly population has been growing rapidly and is expected to constitute more than 25 percent of the total population by the year 2030. The ageing process brings with it a host of health problems. Here the question arises--Are the increasing years of life going to create a high proportion of sick and disabled elderly people, or a rich human resource of healthy senior citizens? Since more women are living longer than men, who would face a higher risk of disability and handicap? These questions are yet to be answered in Singapore. This paper seeks answers to these questions. The study is based on a sample survey of 1209 elderly Singaporeans living in Kampong Glam, Kreta Ayer and Bukit Merah parliamentary constituencies which have some of the highest proportions of the aged population. The results revealed that more than half of the aged had a disability and the rate of disability was significantly higher among the women as compared to the men. More than one-third of the elderly had a handicap and the rate of handicap among the women was twice as much as that among the men. Severity of handicap was directly correlated with age.
新加坡老年人口一直在迅速增长，预计到2030年将占总人口的25%以上。老龄化进程带来了一系列健康问题。这里就出现了一个问题——寿命的延长会导致大量年老体弱、残疾的老年人出现，还是会造就丰富的健康老年人力资源？由于女性比男性寿命更长，那么谁面临残疾和障碍的风险更高呢？这些问题在新加坡尚未得到解答。本文旨在寻找这些问题的答案。该研究基于对居住在甘榜格南、直落亚逸和武吉美拉选区的1209名新加坡老年人的抽样调查，这些选区的老年人口比例在新加坡名列前茅。结果显示，超过半数的老年人存在残疾，而且女性的残疾率显著高于男性。超过三分之一的老年人存在障碍，女性的障碍率是男性的两倍。障碍的严重程度与年龄直接相关。
