Life expectancy is going up all over the world, even within the poorest countries in the world. This is thanks in a large part to better healthcare and better knowledge about how to stay healthier. However, one of the downsides of this is the fact that when people have nonfatal illnesses, they are often seeing that their quality of life declines. This is quite unfortunate, and it points out many of the holes that still exist within the healthcare system today.
Ischemic heart disease, lower respiratory infections, and strokes are accounting for much of the nonfatal illnesses affecting life quality now. There are no easy cures for many of these diseases simply because most of the cases that are occurring today are happening because of lifestyle choices made much earlier in people’s lives. Poor diets, inactivity, smoking, and drinking often lead to the health problems that the elderly are suffering from today. There’s very little that can be done about this with today’s medical technology except for high quality care, such as professional in-home care.
Still, global life expectancy has gone up by about 6 years for both men and women. This is mostly thanks to better HIV/AIDS care, as well as malaria treatment and prevention. However, little things, like better emergency stroke treatment, better care for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, and more awareness when it comes to senior safety have all helped to contribute to this improvement in the more developed countries.
One interesting thing to note from the most recent research out there is that while life expectancy has gone up by 6.2 years, healthy life expectancy has only gone up by 5.4 years. Healthy life expectancy helps to measure nonfatal illnesses and the impact that they have upon the quality of life that people experience. So, while people are living longer, the years that they are living at a high quality of life are not keeping pace with the years that they are living. This is a small number at first, but it affects some people more severely than others. Those that are living longer, but with impaired health, need some sort of senior care in order to maintain their healthiest lives possible. This has been an ongoing problem within the senior care industry, and this study only highlights the need to have more professional caregivers in our communities.
It’s hoped that healthcare will close this gap eventually. Longer lives are great, but longer, higher quality lives are even better. It’s something that’s possible to achieve, and research in these areas is a must if things are going to improve for the elderly that are affected. Until this becomes a reality, though, we can help our older family members by helping them to find the care that will help them out the most. It might be in-home care, or it might not be. This is something that will vary from person to person. All we can do is help them find the support and loving care that will benefit them the most.
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