WOMEN AND THE 3RD AND 4TH AGE

In 1900, the world population was less than 1.7 billion people; the Un ited Nations projects that in 2000 it will be 6.2, and in 2020, 7.9 bi llion. The proportion of the elderly (65 years and over), will increas e from 5.1% (1950) to 6.8% by the year 2000 and to 8.8% by 2020, when out of an elderly population of 796 million people, 124 million are pr ojected to be 80 years and over. Due to an increasing gender inequalit y in life expectation, the majority of the elderly will be women. An a ged population is a basically new feature in the history of humanity, the implications of which are - as yet - incompletely understood. It i s clear, however, that the last years of life are accompanied by an in crease in disability and sickness, with very high demands for health a nd social services. Hence, the soaring elderly population will raise m ajor social, economic and ethical issues worldwide and may strain to t he limit the ability of health, social and economic infrastructures of many countries. It may also result in an increasingly large proportio n of humanity (the elderly in general and elderly women, in particular ) living in absolute poverty. The demographic, health, socioeconomic a nd ethical dimensions of the problem are discussed with particular emp hasis on the situation of elderly women and a plea is made for greatly increased medical and socioeconomic research. (C) 1997 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.