According to a study conducted by the UN Heath Agency, the fear of ageing can cause earlier death. Hence, resulting in the shortening of one’s life. The study came about this Thursday, with the widespread of ageist attitudes worldwide.
Being the one of its kind research report by the World Heath Organization (WHO), 60% of the respondents answered that older people ‘were not respected.’
From a data of more than 83,000 respondents (aged 18 years and older) from 53 countries, there came out a conclusion that ‘attitudes towards older people were more negative in richer countries.’
The data confirms “that ageism is extremely common,” said John Beard, WHO’s head of Ageing and Life Course.
Warning that discrimination and negative views about aged people could have sweeping results, he included the same cautions for the younger people, as well.
“There is very good evidence that people who have negative views of themselves as they grow older… it shortens their lives,” Beard told reporters.
WHO cited recently published research indicating that, “people who hold negative views about their own ageing, do not recover as well from disability and live on average 7.5 years less than people with positive attitudes.”
Attitudes about ageing are “on the level that racism and sexism were maybe 20, 30 or 40 years ago,” Beard said.
“Things which are no longer accepted if you were talking about someone on the basis of their race or sex are still tolerated when it comes down to their age.”
The official authorities of WHO also came out against mandatory, age-defined policies like retirement, thus, describing them as “problematic”.
