A Five-Nation Perspective On The Elderly

Abstract

As the world faces the challenges of an increasingly aged population, this study examines the attitudes and experiences of those age sixty-five and older in five nations: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, western Germany, and Japan. Commissioned by the Commonwealth Fund Commission on Elderly People Living Alone and conducted by Louis Harris and Associates in 1991, the survey was undertaken to illuminate issues critical to the well-being of older people, including satisfaction with life, opportunities for social interaction and community support, and expectations and use of medical care.This study provides new insights into the problems and attitudes of elderly U.S. residents by comparing their attitudes and experiences with those of elderly people in other highly industrialized and technologically advanced countries. Each of the five countries has a well-developed and relatively comprehensive social welfare system that provides retirement pensions and health care coverage for elderly citizens. With regard to health coverage, the population over age sixty-five is particularly interesting because almost all elderly Americans have government-sponsored health insurance coverage under Medicare-making the United States similar to the other nations in this regard. The same cannot be said for the nonelderly population.The study results reveal a great deal of commonality in the experiences of elderly people across the five nations but also show striking differences. Most notably, the fear of the cost of health care is astoundingly different for elderly people in the United States compared with their counterparts in the other four nations.Survey design and methods. A cross-section of approximately 900 people age sixty-five and older were interviewed in each of the five countries: the United States (910 interviews), Canada (930 interviews),

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