Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA,
Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway,
Gerontology. 2019;65(2):136-144. doi: 10.1159/000494025. Epub 2018 Dec 13.
Usually, population aging is measured to inform fiscal and social planning because it is considered to indicate the burden that an elderly population presents to the economic, social security, and health systems of a society. Measures of population aging are expected to indicate shifts in the distribution of individuals' attributes (e.g., chronological age, health) within a population that are relevant to assessing the burden. We claim that chronological age - even though it is the attribute most broadly used - may frequently not be the best measure to satisfy this purpose. A distribution of chronological age per se does not present a burden. Rather, burdens arise from the characteristics that supposedly or actually accompany chronological ages. We posit that in addition to chronological age, meaningful measures of population aging should reflect, for instance, the distribution of economic productivity, health, functional capacities, or biological age, as these attributes may more directly assess the burden on the socioeconomic and health systems. Here, we illustrate some limitations of measures of population aging based on each kind of measure, including chronological age, and review alternative measures that may better inform fiscal, social, and health planning.
通常，人口老龄化是通过衡量人口年龄结构来评估社会的经济、社会保障和卫生系统的负担。人口老龄化的衡量标准预计可以反映出人口中个体属性（如年龄、健康状况）的分布变化，这些变化对于评估负担是至关重要的。我们认为，年龄（即使是最广泛使用的属性）可能并不总是满足这一目的的最佳衡量标准。年龄本身的分布并不构成负担，而是与年龄相关的特征可能导致了负担。我们认为，除了年龄之外，人口老龄化的衡量标准还应该反映经济生产力、健康、功能能力或生物年龄等方面的分布情况，因为这些属性可能更直接地评估对社会经济和卫生系统的负担。在这里，我们将举例说明一些基于各种衡量标准（包括年龄）的人口老龄化衡量标准的局限性，并探讨可能更好地为财政、社会和卫生规划提供信息的替代衡量标准。
