Scapegoating Older Adults – Ageism Rears its Ugly Head

Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service

Everyday ageism stereotyping or discriminating against people because of their age – looms large for people as young as 50.93 percent of older adults say they have faced some form of age discrimination, reports the AARP News headlines question whether President Biden is too old to run for a second term, and the mental health of Sen. Diane Feinstein. Women disproportionately suffer from age-related bias, especially at the workplace. Moreover, ageism has harmful healthcare impacts. Speakers at the weekly briefing on July 15 discussed age-related bias, and its physical and mental impacts on older adults.

Dr. Julie Allen, Adjunct Faculty Associate, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan surveyed 2,048 seniors, ages 50-80, and she found over 93% reported regularly experiencing one or more forms of ageism. Allen said that common everyday ageism stresses out seniors and her study found age discrimination was associated with four health indicators just as racism has been linked to poor health outcomes. She said internalized forms of aging can impact overall wellness. She also believes that everyday ageism can also trigger stress in the body. Stress is known to increase heart rate, blood pressure, interfere with sleep, and dampen the immune system’s ability to fight off viruses, among other negative consequences.   She added we need to do our part to promote better health and well-being amongst older adults.

Dr. Louise Aronson, geriatrician, and professor of medicine at UC San Francisco said it turns out women get older in larger numbers than men. It’s because women are dying more because there’s more obese. There’s more women smoking and there’s more women drinking too much. So it would be better if the gap was getting smaller because we were helping men not to die but unfortunately that’s not what I can report.  Aronson noted that because women have less income, their contributions to retirement funds are smaller. She called on people to maintain healthy living habits and eat more vegetables and fruit.

Paul Kleyman, national coordinator at Journalists Network on Generations, and editor of Generation Beats Online said no matter who is in power, the public always has multiple comments and criticisms. Therefore, in the face of the aging of the country, the public needs to maintain continuous thinking to keep up with the times, and establish a number of facilities in the society to allow the elderly to move independently and maintain their participation in modern society. Kleiman also mentioned that the aging of the population is not necessarily a bad thing. The elderly usually accumulate a certain amount of experience and wisdom. As long as the elderly can continue to participate, I believe that there are only benefits and no disadvantages to society.