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Demographic shifts affect future well-being of women
WASHINGTON — A growing aging population, changing roles and smaller households are altering women’s lives and affecting their future well-being, according to a keynote address at the 25th annual meeting of The North American Menopause Society.
Typically living longer than men, providing care across generations and acting as primary health decision makers, women are poised to define the future of the United States and world, said Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. “Demographics is destiny; it is affecting how we live, where we live and the shape and form. The future is profoundly gray, small and female.”
The main demographic change occurring, both in the United States and around the world, is people living longer and thereby boosting the older population percentage, Coughlin said.
“We are not dying at the rate we once did,” Coughlin said.
He placed people in a category with technology and innovation as “disruptive” forces — changing business, how care is provided and how people live.
“Every 7 to 8 seconds, one person in the United States turns 68 years old,” Coughlin said. “By 2020, the entire nation will have the same profile as the state of Florida.”
People will have chronic disease, but their life will continue, Coughlin said. People might have multiple careers in a lifetime rather than multiple jobs; he noted the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs is women older than 50 years. The “half-life of knowledge and technology” is shrinking, he said.
Geography of aging
“Much of Europe has more wheelchairs and walkers than baby carriages; parts of South America, including very fast-growing Brazil, has much of the same demographics,” Coughlin said. “The life expectancy of men in the former Soviet Union has dropped 8 years since the Cold War. Japan is selling more adult diapers than baby diapers.”
One of the main reasons the world’s population, including much of the developing world, is aging is because people are choosing to not have children, Coughlin said.
“The fertility rate now has dropped down to 1.9%, you need 2.1% just to keep the population relatively even,” Coughlin said.
The trend is shrinking household size, Coughlin said; one in five women in the United States is child-free today vs. one in 10 women in the 1970s. In other countries, the fertility rate is going into negative numbers; Coughlin noted “one-child family” policies and offers to pay couples for having children and/or daycare for 5 years.
“This demographic change to an aging society does not just mean living longer,” Coughlin said. “It’s going to profoundly change how our societies look, who does the work and the number of people that we may have to provide care for us.”
In the United States, the proportion of solo households rose from 17% in 1970 to nearly 30% today, Coughlin said; 30% of adults older than 60 years — and more than 43% of women older than 65 years — live by themselves.
Women as ‘chief care officer’
Women also have much more dominant roles in consumer activities, Coughlin said, serving as “the chief consumer officer” and “chief care officer” in households. They are responsible for 80 to 90 cents on every dollar for health care decisions and hold the role as “vector customer.”
“If you’re between 47 and 57 years old, you are the primary customer; not just for your house, but you are likely to influence your Gen Y children and your older adults,” Coughlin said.
Women have more undergraduate college degrees in everything but engineering, will remain in the workforce longer than men and are buying more houses, Coughlin said. On the other side of this, women continue to maintain their traditional roles and still take on more, he added.
“They are sandwiched,” Coughlin said. “Given the longevity, this sandwich is likely to be a triple decker. You could be well into your 60s, caring for an older adult parent, have grandchildren who are hitting you up for college money, and kids in between who are trying to find jobs.”
Looking at how the aging population will “live, work and play tomorrow” is a focus for Coughlin and his team working in the lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop new ideas and technology. He laid out several high-tech health visions.
“Everyone is enamored with the wearables like the FitBit,” Coughlin said. “That’s fun, but that’s a sideshow; once it’s in the retail stores, its old news. Next it’s going to be in you.”
Sensors will monitor glucose and blood pressure, then talk to smartphones, which are monitored by call centers or clinicians, Coughlin said. Bar codes and radiofrequency identification chips will give consumers “personalized information to make the right decision.”
For more information:
Coughlin JF. Aging America and the challenges of changing demographics. Presented at: The North American Menopause Society Annual Meeting; Oct. 15-18, 2014; Washington, D.C.
Disclosure: Coughlin reports no relevant financial disclosures.