How people are living longer

How people are living longer

Introduction

After the end of the Great Famine and the Black Death in 1350, the world experienced a steady growth in population. It is has been predicted by the United Nations Population Division that the world population will hit 9.1 billion mark in 2050 (Dettman, 2007). This prediction in the growth of human population has raised concern over the planet’s ability to withstand that great amount of people. A century ago, the standard life span of people lied between 40 and 45 years but, this has changed with many people now living to the old age of 77 years and even more (Information Resources Management Association, 2011). People mostly from the developed world are currently living longer and healthier with some staying alive for more than a decade than their parents. This is not because of the retardation in aging or changes in other factors but due to the fact that people have become more conscious of living health.

Advancements in healthcare and technology

Global demographic, currently shows that people are staying alive for a longer period than it was previously. Some of the reasons behind this are the improvement in healthcare and availability of better nutrition for everyone. People from the developed nations live in good health and this makes them to live a decade longer than their parents, the reason being that they are staying health. The drastic progress in the field of science and improvement in the people’s daily and working life have significantly helped in the extension of life spans. More children now grow past the child birth stage and develop faster than before because of the great miles achieved in the field of medicine (Keese, 2006). Nowadays, pregnant women are taken to give birth in hospitals endowed with emergency equipment as well as having qualified doctors and nurses that are able to handle any situation in case things go wrong.

In the past, the cases of epidemic diseases were very high because of the open sewages that characterized larger cities. The coming of flush toilets and construction of proper sewerage systems have controlled the disposal of waste and garbage that used to spill all over the streets. The wastes and garbage are now channeled to secured underground pipes thus preventing epidemics from attacking and killing people. There are no cases of the outbreak of cholera in America and Europe because of the presence of flushing toilets and disinfected tap water in these countries unlike, in developing nations where these things are inadequate.

The past period, medical therapy and technology were not so much developed as today. Diseases like smallpox and malaria claimed the lives of so many people. These days, the diseases are no longer a threat to the lives of people thanks to the advancement of medical treatment.  In addition, we have seen invention of sophisticated technology in medical treatment. An example for this is the laser technology which is worldwide used nowadays when conducting surgery. Patients are enjoying the benefits of this technology as it is efficient and precise. The surgeries conducted in past used to fill people with anxiety because of the uncertainties but, with this new surgical technology people undergoing surgery are more comfortable (Dettman, 2007). This advancement in technology has indeed saved the lives of people greatly.

The contemporary people have good knowledge about health care than the people of the past; this is attributed to education and mass media. Many media companies have launched campaigns that are very beneficial and entail informing people of the dangers of using drugs and smoking. In addition, people nowadays have knowledge of which food to take that is good to their health. To illustrate this, people that are having some diseases know which food to take and not take hence, avoiding one that can be harmful to their health.

Baby boomer generation

The return of young males to U.S., Australia, and Canada after the end of the Second World War caused the introduction of new children into the world, as most of the young males started their own families. This scenario brought about a rapid and significant increase in the amount of births between 1946 and 1964. During the baby boom, .............