The Epidemiology of Aging: a Further Stage in the Demographic Transition

Abstract

Social and economic indicators depict Mexico as a country of intermediate development. It is also in intermediate stages of demographic and epidemiologie transitions. When these traits are translated into socio-demographic perspectives, all projections indicate that for the next fifty years we can expect: i) percentage decreases in child and teen-age populations, ii) large percentage and absolute increases in adult population, and iii) important increases in the elderly population. Correlated with the above in the field of public health we can expect: a) decreases in communicable and parasitic diseases, and b) increases in the incidence and prevalence of chronic and degenerative diseases more typical of adult and the elderly. Among elders death due to infectious diseases is less common than within other sectors of population. Mortality associated with chronic aliments has increased, with recent and remarkable changes during the last twenty years. This transformation is not evenly distributed. It is more accelerated in developed and urban areas as contrasted with the rural and less developed. These processes have important social, economic, family, and public health implications.