Longevidad
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Item The pace of convergence of population aging in Latin America: opportunities and challenges(Organization of Suzana Cavenaghi. Asociación Latinoamericana de Población (ALAP), 2009) Brenes Camacho, GilbertSome of the fastest demographic transitions in the world have been observed in Latin American countries. Fertility and mortality declining have occurred in less than half the time observed in industrialized countries. Population aging is also occurring rapidly in the region. However, its socioeconomic consequences take longer to happen. Socioeconomic disadvantages experienced by current cohorts of Latin American elderly are more resistant to change over time because of the persistence of cohort effects. The slower pace of population aging with respect to other demographic dynamics translates into both opportunities and challenges. This paper intends to describe the differences in the population aging process across Latin American countries, and how these differences can show the path for institutional changes that can improve the welfare of Latin American nations. The paper will first explore how advanced different Latin American countries are in their population aging process. The paper will link this information with data about Social Security coverage among the labor force, labor force formalization and availability of caretakers. Countries that are demographic transition leaders have had higher proportions of educated people, as well as proactive governments that created welfare institutions that still benefit the population in most need. On the contrary, most of the countries that are still going through the transition have been characterized by income and wealth inequality and an absence of political disposition to advance human development policies. The countries that are still far away in their aging process will be able to avail from their demographic situation consensus to develop policies and institutions that improve the human development of their populations can be reached. The article concludes highlighting the need for reforms in terms of Social Security coverage, not only pension reform, for securing the well-being of Latin American elderly in the near futureItem Insurance and other socioeconomic determinants of elderly longevity in a Costa Rican panel(Journal of Biosocial Science: 37(6), 2005) Rosero Bixby, Luis; Dow, William H.; Laclé Murray, AdrianaOfficial figures show that life expectancy in Costa Rica is longer than in the United States (US), in spite of the fact that per capita health expenditure is only one-tenth that of the US. To check whether this is for real and to explore some of its determinants, 900 Costa Ricans aged 60+ were followed from 1984 to 2001. Follow-up household visits were made, deaths were tracked in the national death registry, and survival status in the voting registry was double-checked. In addition, the survivors were contacted in 2002. Two-thirds of the panel had died by December 2001. Kaplan—Meier curves, life tables and Cox regression were used to analyse the panel's survival. Mortality in the panel was slightly higher than the Costa Rican average and similar to that in the US, confirming the exceptional longevity of Costa Ricans. Survival was substantially lower among unmarried men and individuals with limited autonomy at the beginning of the study. The effect of socioeconomic status is weak. Insurance effects seem to be confounded by selection biases.Item ¿Son los nonagenarios costarricenses los seres humanos más longevos?(Ensayos en honor a Víctoe Hugo Céspedes Solano. Academia de Centroamérica, 2005) Rosero Bixby, LuisCon base en datos de un registro de población que se lleva en Costa Rica con propósitos electorales, este artículo reestima la mortalidad y la esperanza de vida de los nonagenarios costarricenses. El registro contiene 24.400 nonagenarios que vivieron durante el período 1983-2004. Para asegurar que no hay errores de declaración de la edad, solamente los individuos que se registraron en los tomos oficiales de la época de su nacimiento se incluyen en las estimaciones finales. El análisis es hasta cierto punto de cohortes extintas, con poco espacio para errores de subregistro de defunciones. Dado que los individuos residentes fuera de la Región Central presentan una mortalidad menor y esto puede resultar sospechoso, ellos también fueron excluidos de las estimaciones. La mortalidad a la edad 90 en Costa Rica es 13 por ciento más baja que el promedio de 13 países de ingresos altos con estadísticas confiables. Esta ventaja se incrementa con la edad a razón de un 1 por ciento por año. Los varones tienen una ventaja adicional de un 12 por ciento. La mortalidad de esta población disminuyó a razón de un 0,4 por ciento por año durante el período estudiado, con reducciones más fuertes a edades más avanzadas. La esperanza de vida de los varones a la edad 90 resultó de 4,4 años, medio año más alta que cualquier otro país con estadísticas confiables en el mundo: los varones ancianos costarricenses pueden ser los seres humanos más longevos, al menos cuando se comparan solamente poblaciones nacionales. Aunque esta esperanza de vida es menor que la de las mujeres, la diferencia es de sólo 0,3 años: la más pequeña registrada a estos niveles de mortalidad. La longevidad superior de los ancianos costarricenses se origina principalmente de una menor mortalidad cardiovascular.Item The exceptionally high life expectancy of Costa Rican nonagenarians(Demography 45(3), 2008) Rosero Bixby, LuisRobust data from a voter registry show that Costa Rican nonagenarians have an exceptionally high live expectancy. Mortality at age 90 in Costa Rica is at least 14% lower than an average of 13 high-income countries. This advantage increases with age by 1% per year. Males have an additional 12% advantage. Age-90 life expectancy for males is 4.4 years, one-half year more than any other country in the world. These estimates do not use problematic data on reprted ages, but ages are computed from birth dates in the Costa Rican birth-registration ledgers. Census data confi rm the exceptionally high survival of elderly Costa Ricans, especially males. Comparisons with the United States and Sweden show that the Costa Rican advantage comes mostly from reduced incidence of cardiovascular diseases, coupled with a low prevalence of obesity, as the only available explanatory risk factor. Costa Rican nonagenarians are survivors of cohorts that underwent extremely harsh health conditions when young, and their advantage might be just a heterogeneity in frailty effect that might disappear in more recent cohorts. The availability of reliable estimates for the oldest-old in low- income populations is extremely rare. These results may enlighten the debate over how harsh early-life health conditions affect older-age mortality.