Longevidad
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://repositorio.sibdi.ucr.ac.cr/handle/123456789/16071
Browse
16 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 16
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 Level of Educationand Disability among the Elderly People from Buenos Aires = Nivel de educación y discapacidad entre los ancianos de Buenos Aires(Población y Salud en Mesoamérica, Volumen 10, número 1 (julio-diciembre 2012), 2012) Monteverde, Malena; Peláez, Enrique; Celton, DoraEl contexto en el que se está produciendo el envejecimiento de la población en América Latina y el Caribe genera interrogantes acerca de la trayectoria futura en la prevalencia de discapacidades por edad. En este sentido, resulta de gran importancia estudiar el comportamiento de la prevalencia de discapacidades y analizar los factores de riesgo en poblaciones de la región. El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar la prevalencia de discapacidades entre la población de 60 años y más de Buenos Aires y evaluar las diferencias entre grupos con distintos niveles educativos. Los datos usados provienen del estudio “Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento” -SABE- para Buenos Aires. En base a dicha información, se estima la prevalencia de discapacidades según nivel educativo y se analizan los efectos de diferentes factores de riesgo sobre la probabilidad de experimentar discapacidades entre individuos con diferentes niveles de educación. Los resultados sugieren que el nivel de educación actúa como un importante protector contra el riesgo de experimentar discapacidades en AVD y en AIVD, y que dicha relación estaría parcialmente mediada por el perfil de salud de los individuos.Item Impresiones y recuerdos: José Silverio Gómez 1801- 1904(Población y Salud en Mesoamérica, Volumen 8, número 2 (enero-junio 2011), 2011) Pittier, HenriEnsayo del conservacionista Henri Pittier (1857-1950) realizado en 1904. Es posiblemente el primer testimonio sobre la excepcional longevidad de los habitantes de la Península de Nicoya, Costa Rica.Item 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.Item Stressors over the life course and neuroendocrine system dysregulation in Costa Rica(Journal of Aging and Health XX(X), 2010) Gersten, Omer; Rosero Bixby, Luis; Dow, William H.Objectives: A key aspect of the increasingly popular allostatic load (AL) framework is that stressors experienced over the entire life course result in physiological dysregulation. Although core to AL theory, this idea has been little tested, and where it has been tested, the results have been mixed. Method: The study analyzes the Costa Rican Study on Longevity and Healthy Aging (CRELES), a new, cross-sectional, and nationally representative survey of older Costa Rican men and women (aged between 60 and 109 years). The survey period is between 2004 and 2006, and the survey has a sample size of 2,827 individuals. This article focuses on the relationship between a variety of stressors experienced over the life course and cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), epinephrine, and norepinephrine analyzed separately and in an index. Results: There are some links between certain stressors and worse cortisol levels, but overall, almost all of the stressors examined are not associated with riskier neuroendocrine biomarker profiles. Discussion: More work is needed, in order to establishthe connection between stressors experienced over the life course and resting levels of the neuroendocrine markers.Item Predicting mortality with biomarkers : a population-based prospective cohort study for elderly Costa Ricans(Population Health Metrics 10(1), 2012) Rosero Bixby, Luis; Dow, William H.Background: Little is known about adult health and mortality relationships outside high-income nations, partly because few datasets have contained biomarker data in representative populations. Our objective is to determine the prognostic value of biomarkers with respect to total and cardiovascular mortality in an elderly population of a middle-income country, as well as the extent to which they mediate the effects of age and sex on mortality. Methods: This is a prospective population-based study in a nationally representative sample of elderly Costa Ricans. Baseline interviews occurred mostly in 2005 and mortality follow-up went through December 2010. Sample size after excluding observations with missing values: 2,313 individuals and 564 deaths. Main outcome: prospective death rate ratios for 22 baseline biomarkers, which were estimated with hazard regression models. Results: Biomarkers significantly predict future death above and beyond demographic and self-reprted health conditions. The studied biomarkers account for almost half of the effect of age on mortality. However, the sex gap in mortality became several times wider after controlling for biomarkers. The most powerful predictors were simple physical tests: handgrip strength, pulmonary peak flow, and walking speed. Three blood tests also predicted prospective mortality: C-reactive protein (CRP), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS). Strikingly, high blood pressure (BP) and high total cholesterol showed little or no predictive power. Anthropometric measures also failed to show significant mortality effects. Conclusions: This study adds to the growing evidence that blood markers for CRP, HbA1c, and DHEAS, along with organ-specific functional reserve indicators (handgrip, walking speed, and pulmonary peak flow), are valuable tools for identifying vulnerable elderly. The results also highlight the need to better understand an anomaly noted previously in other settings: despite the continued medical focus on drugs for BP and cholesterol, high levels of BP and cholesterol have little predictive value of mortality in this elderly population.Item The Nicoya region of Costa Rica : a high longevity island for elderly males(Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vol 11, 2013) Rosero Bixby, Luis; Dow, William H.; Rehkopf, David H.Reliable data show that the Nicoyan region of Costa Rica is a hot spot of high longevity. A survival follow-up of 16,300 elderly Costa Ricans estimated a Nicoya death rate ratio (DRR) for males 1990–2011 of 0.80 (0.69–0.93 CI). For a 60-yearold Nicoyan male, the probability of becoming centenarian is seven times that of a Japanese male, and his life expectancy is 2.2 years greater. This Nicoya advantage does not occur in females, is independent of socio-economic conditions, disappears in out-migrants and comes from lower cardiovascular (CV) mortality (DRR = 0.65). Nicoyans have lower levels of biomarkers of CV risk; they are also leaner, taller and suffer fewer disabilities. Two markers of ageing and stress—telomere length and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate—are also more favourable. The Nicoya diet is prosaic and abundant in traditional foods like rice, beans and animal protein, with low glycemic index and high fibre content.Item Longer leukocyte telomere length in Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula: A population-based study(Experimental Gerontology; Volumen 48, Número 11, 2013) Rehkopf, David H.; Dow, William H.; Rosero Bixby, Luis; Lin, Jue; Epel, Elissa S.; Blackburn, Elizabeth H.Studies in humans suggest that leukocyte telomere length may act as a marker of biological aging. We investigated whether individuals in the Nicoya region of Costa Rica, known for exceptional longevity, had longer telomere length than those in other parts of the country. After controlling for age, age squared, rurality, rainy season and gender, mean leukocyte telomere length in Nicoya was substantially longer (81 base pairs, p<0.05) than in other areas of Costa Rica, providing evidence of a biological pathway to which this notable longevity may be related. This relationship remains unchanged (79 base pairs, p<0.05) after statistically controlling for nineteen potential biological, dietary and social and demographic mediators. Thus the difference in mean leukocyte telomere length that characterizes this unique region does not appear to be explainable by traditional behavioral and biological risk factors. More detailed examination of mean leukocyte telomere length by age shows that the regional telomere length difference declines at older ages.