Skip to main content
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses

New Research In

Physical Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Physical Sciences
  • Astronomy
  • Computer Sciences
  • Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
  • Engineering
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Statistics

Social Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Economic Sciences
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Political Sciences
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Social Sciences

Biological Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Agricultural Sciences
  • Anthropology
  • Applied Biological Sciences
  • Biochemistry
  • Biophysics and Computational Biology
  • Cell Biology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Evolution
  • Genetics
  • Immunology and Inflammation
  • Medical Sciences
  • Microbiology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology
  • Physiology
  • Plant Biology
  • Population Biology
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Sustainability Science
  • Systems Biology
Research Article

Multidimensional comparison of countries’ adaptation to societal aging

Cynthia Chen, Dana P. Goldman, Julie Zissimopoulos, John W. Rowe, and Research Network on an Aging Society
PNAS September 11, 2018 115 (37) 9169-9174; first published August 28, 2018; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1806260115
Cynthia Chen
aSaw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117549;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Dana P. Goldman
bSchaffer Center for Health Policy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Julie Zissimopoulos
cSchaffer Center for Health Policy, Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
John W. Rowe
dDepartment of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: jwr2108@cumc.columbia.edu
  1. Edited by Andrew J. Cherlin, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, and approved June 12, 2018 (received for review April 13, 2018)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

The proportion of older adults in the population is growing rapidly across the globe. This demographic transformation into “aging societies” presents very consequential economic and social risks. Countries vary substantially in the degree to which they have been aging and in their establishment of the policies, supports, and services needed to facilitate the well-being of older persons. Based on a multidimensional definition of a successfully aging society, we present an index that quantifies the degree to which nations are effectively facing the challenge of population aging. This index permits comparisons across countries and facilitates identifications of gaps within countries in adaptation as well as approaches that have been effective in closing such gaps.

Abstract

As long-term changes in life expectancy and fertility drive the emergence of aging societies across the globe, individual countries vary widely in the development of age-relevant policies and programs. While failure to adapt to the demographic transformation carries not only important financial risks but also social risks, most efforts to gauge countries’ preparedness focus on economic indicators. Using data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other sources, we developed a multidimensional Aging Society Index that assesses the status of older populations across five specific domains, including productivity and engagement, well-being, equity, economic and physical security, and intergenerational cohesion. For 18 OECD countries, the results demonstrate substantial diversity in countries’ progress in adapting to aging. For any given domain, there are wide differences across countries, and within most countries, there is substantial variation across domains. Overall, Norway and Sweden rank first in adaptation to aging, followed by the United States, The Netherlands, and Japan. Central and eastern European countries rank at the bottom, with huge untapped potential for successful aging. The United States ranks best in productivity and engagement, in the top half for cohesion, and in the middle in well-being, but it ranks third from the bottom in equity. Only well-being and security showed significant between-domain correlation (r = 0.59, P = 0.011), strengthening the case for a multidimensional index. Examination of heterogeneity within and across domains of the index can be used to assess the need for, and effectiveness of, various programs and policies and facilitate successful adaptation to the demographic transition.

  • aging
  • society
  • international

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jwr2108{at}cumc.columbia.edu.
  • ↵2A complete list of the Research Network on an Aging Society can be found in SI Appendix.

  • Author contributions: D.P.G., J.W.R., and R.N.o.a.A.S. designed research; C.C. and J.Z. performed research; R.N.o.a.A.S. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; C.C. and J.Z. analyzed data; and C.C., D.P.G., J.Z., and J.W.R. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1806260115/-/DCSupplemental.

Published under the PNAS license.

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Multidimensional comparison of countries’ adaptation to societal aging
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Multidimensional comparison of countries’ adaptation to societal aging
Cynthia Chen, Dana P. Goldman, Julie Zissimopoulos, John W. Rowe, Research Network on an Aging Society
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2018, 115 (37) 9169-9174; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1806260115

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Multidimensional comparison of countries’ adaptation to societal aging
Cynthia Chen, Dana P. Goldman, Julie Zissimopoulos, John W. Rowe, Research Network on an Aging Society
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2018, 115 (37) 9169-9174; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1806260115
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 115 (37)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Article Classifications

  • Social Sciences
  • Political Sciences

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Materials and Methods
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Abstract depiction of a guitar and musical note
Science & Culture: At the nexus of music and medicine, some see disease treatments
Although the evidence is still limited, a growing body of research suggests music may have beneficial effects for diseases such as Parkinson’s.
Image credit: Shutterstock/agsandrew.
Scientist looking at an electronic tablet
Opinion: Standardizing gene product nomenclature—a call to action
Biomedical communities and journals need to standardize nomenclature of gene products to enhance accuracy in scientific and public communication.
Image credit: Shutterstock/greenbutterfly.
One red and one yellow modeled protein structures
Journal Club: Study reveals evolutionary origins of fold-switching protein
Shapeshifting designs could have wide-ranging pharmaceutical and biomedical applications in coming years.
Image credit: Acacia Dishman/Medical College of Wisconsin.
White and blue bird
Hazards of ozone pollution to birds
Amanda Rodewald, Ivan Rudik, and Catherine Kling talk about the hazards of ozone pollution to birds.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Goats standing in a pin
Transplantation of sperm-producing stem cells
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can improve the effectiveness of spermatogonial stem cell transplantation in mice and livestock, a study finds.
Image credit: Jon M. Oatley.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Latest Articles
  • Archive

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490