Trends in healthy life expectancy in Hong Kong SAR 1996–2008

Although Hong Kong has one of the best life expectancy (LE) records in the world, second only to Japan for women, we know very little about the changes in the health status of the older adult population. Our article aims to provide a better understanding of trends in both chronic morbidity and disability for older men and women. The authors compute chronic morbidity-free and disability-free life expectancy and the proportion of both in relation to total LE using the Sullivan method to examine whether Hong Kong older adults are experiencing a compression of morbidity and disability and whether there is any gender difference in relation to mortality and morbidity. The results of this study show that Hong Kong women tend to outlive Hong Kong men but are also more likely to suffer from a ‘double disadvantage’, namely more years of life with more chronic morbidity and disability. There has also been a significant expansion of chronic morbidity, as chronic morbidity-free life expectancy (CMFLE) decreased substantially for both genders from 1996 to 2008. Although disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) increased during this period, it increased at a slower pace compared to LE. The proportion of life without chronic morbidity also declined remarkably during these 12 years. Among the advanced ages, the proportion of remaining life in good health without disability has decreased since 1996, indicating a relative expansion of disability

Trace analysis of hydride-forming metallic elements and heavy metals using graphite furnace capacitively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry

The applicability of a newly developed method, Graphite Furnace-Capacitively Coupled Plasma- Atomic Emission Spectrometry (GF-CCP-AES) for ppb level determination of hydride-forming metallic elements and heavy metals in drinking water was investigated. The intensity of the plasma background emission was found to be dependent on the graphite furnace temperature with emission lines limiting the choice of analytical lines for given analysis. Optimized analytical conditions are given below the concentration limits levels of health significance as specified by the Guidelines for Drinking Water given by the World Health Organization (WHO). A simple multi-element detection using a 1-meter spectrometer with photographic film detection was used and shown to provide sufficient sensitivity for rapid screening of analytical parameters specified in the WHO guidelines.link_to_OA_fulltex

Arthur Roger Thatcher's contributions to longevity research : a reflexion

International audienceArthur Roger Thatcher, CB, died in London on February 13, 2010, at 83 years of age. He was actively engaged in demographic research until his death. One of his last papers, The Compression of Deaths above the Mode, is published in this volume of Demographic Research (Thatcher et al., 2010). Roger signed the copyright agreement for the paper on January 24, just a few weeks before his death. Another contribution will appear in a forthcoming monograph entitled Supercentenarians (Maier et al., 2010). In this note, we, the co-authors of his Demographic Research paper, will briefly review his remarkable research accomplishments. Roger Thatcher was born in Birmingham in 1926. He worked for 26 years as a statistician in several national government offices. Later, he served as Registrar General for England and Wales, and was Director of the Office of Population Censuses and Survey (OPCS) from 1978 to 1986. A short description of his professional career up to his retirement can be found in Population Trends (1986). He had a long-standing affinity for the history of actuarial sciences and statistics in England, taking particular interest in the early years of the Statistical Society of London, and helping to compile extracts from its 1830s Proceedings (see Boreham et al., 1988 and Rosenbaum, 2001). He published a historical (1970) of British labour-force statistics back to 1886. Thatcher was also a scientist with broad interests, publishing papers in a wide range of fields, such as archaeology, mathematics (number theory), and cosmology (1972, 1973 and 1982)

Three dimensions of the survival curve: Horizontalization, verticalization, and longevity extension

Three dimensions of the survival curve have been developed: (1) "horizontalization," which corresponds to how long a cohort and how many survivors can live before aging-related deaths significantly decrease the proportion of survivors; (2) "verticalization," which corresponds to how concentrated aging-related (''normal'') deaths are around the modal age at death (M); and (3) ``longevity extension, `` which corresponds to how far the highest normal life durations can exceed M. Our study shows that the degree of horizontalization increased relatively less than the degree of verticalization in Hong Kong from 1976 to 2001. After age normalization, the highest normal life durations moved closer to M, implying that the increase in human longevity is meeting some resistance

Change in demographic window in low fertility countries

During the transition from high fertility and rapid population growth to lower fertility and slower growth, the working-age population expands relative to the dependent (younger and older) population, opening a window of opportunity for economic growth. Indeed, when fertility declines and young-age dependency ratios quickly follow suit , the ratio of working-age people to dependent people rises as the young population increases more slowly than the working-age population. This window opens as the number of younger children decreases but closes again as the number of older people rises. Most Western countries are moving into the later stage of their transition to low fertility and may not benefit from the demographic bonus as the number of older people is already very large. On the contrary, some Asian countries are entering and/or are only in the middle of the transitional period. This paper aims to illustrate the change in demographic window taking into consideration of different age demarcations to calculate total dependency ratio for Italy, France, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong from 1950 to 2050. The results show only when the last age of the working-age population postponed from the age of 64 to 69 years can significantly lengthen the duration of demographic window. This favourable condition at least lasts until 2030 and after that total dependency ratio will gradually rise in Italy and France. The demographic window will increase by 15 years from 2007 to 2022 in Japan, by 8 years from 2026 to 2034 in Singapore and by 11 years from 2027 to 2038 in Hong Kong. However, this scenario is less probable because most people retire earlier than the age of 65 years. Young people also enter a job market later than the folks before. More discussions are made in the paper

Healthy longevity and health care service needs: a pilot study of the centenarians in Hong Kong

Background. More Hong Kong older adults are surviving to advanced ages. There has been a 5.5-fold increase in the number of centenarians over the past few decades. Nonetheless, elderly people are mostly considered to be an under-represented minority. This pilot study aimed to characterise the health profile of the Hong Kong community-dwelling centenarians and to identify their health care service needs. Methods. From September to November 2009, of 33 community-dwelling centenarians and their family members invited from 56 district elderly community centres, 20 agreed to participate (response rate, 67%) and 3 dropped out (drop-out rate, 9%). Two validated instruments (Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey and Elderly Health Center questionnaire) were administered through face-to-face interviews. Data collected included information on family structure, general functioning, activities of daily living, physical health, and cognitive function. Relevant demographic, socioeconomic, and environmental data were also collected. Results. Approximately half of the participants rated their health as very good/good. Half of the participants obtained Mini Mental State Examination scores of >23 (total score, 30). Approximately two-thirds of participants had no difficulty in activities of daily living. Cataract was the most common disease, followed by hypertension and diabetes. More than two-thirds of the participants considered movement and health issues to be major factors preventing them from engaging in social contact, followed by transportation problems and cost. Participants’ daughters, where available, were considered the primary caregivers at times of sickness. Conclusions. To avoid the loss of activities of daily life and functional capability, it is important not to have serious chronic diseases. Economic affluence and family support play a role in minimising the risk of institutionalisation and achieving ageing at home.link_to_OA_fulltex

Plus de 70 000 décès en Europe au cours de l'été 2003

Daily numbers of deaths at a regional level were collected in 16 European countries. Summer mortality was analyzed for the reference period 1998-2002 and for 2003. More than 70,000 additional deaths occurred in Europe during the summer 2003. Major distortions occurred in the age distribution of the deaths, but no harvesting effect was observed in the months following August 2003. Global warming constitutes a new health threat in an aged Europe that may be difficult to detect at the country level, depending on its size. Centralizing the count of daily deaths on an operational geographical scale constitutes a priority for Public Health in Europe.link_to_subscribed_fulltex