Spain is the EU country with the highest life expectancy, with an average of 83.3 years, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Italy. The entry on the scene of the baby boomers brings our country to a situation close to overaging: 2 out of every 10 citizens are over 65 years old. But that age has stopped marking the beginning of old age.
Dialogues in La Vanguardia, in collaboration with Mapfre, brought together a group of experts to discuss the challenges and solutions in the health of this growing population group. Participating in the round table were Marco Inzitari, associate professor of Health Sciences Studies at the UOC and director of Integrated Care and Research at the Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili; Vânia de la Fuente-Núñez, international consultant on healthy aging and ageism and co-lead author of the first United Nations global report on ageism; Josep Serrano, managing director of the Fundació per a l’Atenció a Persones Dependents; and Joaquín de los Reyes, director of Mapfre's Senior Generation program.
The first challenge is to define what characterizes this population group to the extent that, as Inzitari stressed, “chronological age has ceased to make sense.” The tendency is to lump together a growing and very heterogeneous group of people, with diversity in physical, cognitive, social or economic conditions.
In the opinion of the UOC professor, there are other parameters that better define aging and, specifically, he referred to "intrinsic capacity", a term used by the UN, understood as the sum of the physical and mental reserves with which one faces aging. De la Fuente-Núñez, who directed the WHO's global campaign against ageism, spoke in similar terms. In his opinion, what characterizes the older population is precisely diversity. “Aging is marked socially when the person retires. They are arbitrary cuts, which we end up using to impose a way of living life that no longer fits reality due to the great longevity we have,” he highlighted.
Greater longevity is a fact. “In five decades we have gained 25 years of life,” De los Reyes summarized. In this sense, Inzitari explained that there are already global institutions that speak that, in the era of longevity, reaching 100 years of age will be the usual norm. The Mapfre manager said that this reality, which sociologists could foresee due to the effect of the baby boomers, has left public administrations, companies and individuals with duties still to do. “Now it's time to run to be able to provide the generations that already enjoy this greater longevity with the instruments, products and services that allow them to have a healthier life,” said De los Reyes. Health, he argued, not only physical, but also emotional, social and financial to be able to live longer and better.
And it is in this context that the insurer launched the Senior Generation Program at the end of 2020, within which it has already developed the first two products aimed specifically at the group of people over 55 years of age. One is senior accident insurance, in which the insured is provided with 200 hours for whatever they may need after, for example, a fall or a burn; and another is dependency insurance, a life annuity that complements the public aid that may be received.
And what worries the person as they approach that social aging that marks retirement? Concern about change, fear of loneliness and, in the face of an increasingly sophisticated world, surrounding oneself with simple things, De los Reyes summarized, not without adding that continuing to enjoy autonomy to decide is another of the group's concerns. Older people, explained De la Fuente-Núñez, define well-being in old age based on being able to do five different things: satisfy their basic needs, be able to move from one place to another, continue interacting, be able to contribute and continue learning.
The fear of change exists and has to do, according to the ageism expert, with the inability that, as a society and due to the stigma associated with old age, we have to project ourselves at that moment in life. For this reason, she advocated thinking about old age from childhood because, she argued, if we are not able to imagine what we want to do or be in the different stages of life, it will be difficult for us to configure a life plan that allows us to make them a reality. “And in old age, that life plan can be as fascinating as in other stages,” she said. It is true, she acknowledged, that we will not be able to choose in what physical or mental conditions we are going to reach this stage, but it will allow us to plan savings to the extent possible and claim the type of old age we want. “The baby boomer generation has claimed many rights and I hope that now they will do so by claiming what old age they want,” she added.
For Josep Serrano, it is common for people to start thinking about that moment in life when they have to take care of the elderly. “That's when we transform, we empathize and we think about how we will get through this when we find ourselves in this situation,” he said. And it is also these families now caregivers who are “raising the bar” of care. “They tell us how they want to be cared for and it will be different from the current way,” he added. In this sense, he pointed out that the elderly now cared for are mostly children of war and post-war who, due to this historical circumstance, are accustomed to making do with many unexpected situations, are resilient and, in addition, have managed to have a cushion based on effort and depriving yourself of many things. 90% of people currently receiving care are homeowners. For the new generations, the situation, he pointed out, is presumed different, also due to the change in the family model. “Who is going to take care of us?” Serrano asked himself, immediately stating that the person should tend to self-care and live in a community with new formulas that are beginning to appear, such as coliving or cohousing, “We'll see how far They progress in our Mediterranean culture,” he declared.
This mirror of the elderly who need to be cared for helps us to be more attentive to all the services and products on the market, whether private or public solutions, and pushes us to exercise sincerity regarding whether we are prepared to live those ages and for such a long time," reflected the Mapfre manager, who at this point, and after claiming "a culture of foresight and savings," made reference to the reverse mortgage that the entity offers in joint venture with Banco Santander to complement the pension in order to cover unexpected situations, or simply to improve purchasing power.
The era of greater longevity will force us to rethink many paradigms, such as the current retirement age or the functioning of public systems to achieve the sustainability of the welfare state. “If as citizens we expect the public system to provide us with everything we need as passive agents to meet our health needs and vital aspirations for aging, it is not going to arrive,” he reasoned. His recipe involves greater integration of the resources that exist, now very fragmented, and “empowering older people to adopt a more active role” in the culture of healthy aging that, on the other hand, “is not being promoted.” sufficiently.”
But the public system does not reach everything or everyone because, as Serrano stated, “the challenge is huge and the resources are finite.” “Where the administration does not arrive, civil society and private initiative arrive,” he noted. “The State has its role, which is not replaceable, but the role of companies in filling gaps with their value propositions is also essential,” added de los Reyes.
Inzitari also opted to involve people, old and not so old, in the co-design of aging programs developed by the public system, because this way “they will be more real, sustainable and implementable.” At this point he gave as an example the Barcelona Aging and Longevity Lab (Ball), a living lab focused on providing innovative solutions for the elderly promoted by public research institutions in alliance with small and medium-sized local companies. Inzitari is one of the ideologues and promoters of the project.
This collaboration, in the opinion of De los Reyes, is essential “to enrich the value propositions and ensure that they are not inbred.” “At Mapfre we do not devise the conception of a new product or service if it is not working for and with and hand in hand with,” he summarized. And he gave the Senior Space as an example, a communication channel and the door to endless services for this group. Healthy aging and prevention are two pillars of health in the era of longevity. Regarding the first, Serrano stated that it not only provides benefits to the person, but that “the more progress is made in healthy aging rates, the fewer the needs will be when overaging is reached, because risk factors linked to health may disappear.” , so that it ends up being a benefit for society. In this sense, he declared that Catalonia is experiencing a radical change and “social prescription” is being imposed. “Sometimes the doctor no longer prescribes a pill, but instead tells you to go dancing,” he said.
Regarding prevention, De la Fuente-Núñez called for a new approach, because it is not only about preventing diseases, but also about preventing functional deterioration. Or, as Inzitari added, to correct deficits that contribute to many pathologies or social isolation. It has been proven, she explained, that hearing loss, which can be easily corrected with hearing aids, is a modifiable cause of 9% of dementia.
