Levine James, Heet Justin, Burlingame Barbara
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
Sci Aging Knowledge Environ. 2006 Jun 28;2006(10):pe16. doi: 10.1126/sageke.2006.10.pe16.
The older population is growing faster than the population as a whole. Paid work is the main mechanism for physical activity in humans. We, therefore, wanted to ascertain whether work practices (such as employment status and the types of tasks workers perform) follow the biological decline in physical activity that occurs with aging in humans and many other species. We recorded work practices in 3352 adults in the Ivory Coast to establish how work burdens are distributed across different age groups in a community that is minimally fettered by legal constraints. We found a decrease in the amount of work performed with increasing age, and we found that elderly persons performed more skilled, less exothermic tasks than younger workers. These data mirror global workforce distribution trends expressed by age. If the trend continues, a major portion of the population will be unlikely to contribute to the labor force in the near future, producing potentially adverse economic consequences in some populations. Although the problem might be averted or at least minimized by implementing different employment policies, biological factors could overlay and supervene any economic planning.
老年人口的增长速度快于总人口的增长速度。有偿工作是人类进行身体活动的主要方式。因此，我们想确定工作模式（如就业状况和工人执行的任务类型）是否会随着人类和许多其他物种衰老而出现的身体活动生物性下降而变化。我们记录了科特迪瓦3352名成年人的工作模式，以确定在一个受法律限制最小的社区中，工作负担是如何在不同年龄组中分布的。我们发现，随着年龄增长，工作量会减少，而且我们发现老年人比年轻工人执行更多技能性、放热性较低的任务。这些数据反映了按年龄划分的全球劳动力分布趋势。如果这种趋势持续下去，很大一部分人口在不久的将来可能无法为劳动力做出贡献，这可能会给某些人群带来不利的经济后果。尽管通过实施不同的就业政策可能避免或至少最小化这个问题，但生物因素可能会覆盖并凌驾于任何经济规划之上。
