Aging in Italy: The Need for New Welfare Strategies in an Old Country

Abstract

Italy, a Southern European country with 60.8 million inhabitants, has the largest proportion of elderly citizens (aged ≥65) in Europe of 21.4%. The aging of the population is due to a number of reasons, such as baby boomers growing old, an increase in longevity, and low birth rate. Although international migration has increased in recent years, the addition of a foreign segment of the population has neither compensated for nor significantly curtailed the aging phenomenon. The impact of aging on the economic sustainability concerns the progressive reduction of the workforce, high incidence of pension spending in the overall resources allocated to welfare, recent reform of the pension system, and the growing issue of "non-self-sufficiency" in the elderly. Despite limited financial measures dedicated to research, Italy is conducting important studies on aging, both at the national and international level. Physicians and researchers in the field of geriatrics and gerontology are not only promoting quality of life in the elderly, and healthy-active aging, but also contributing to economic stability and social organization. Finally, nutritional and lifestyle habits-and their role in preventing chronic diseases-are the focus of the current international event EXPO 2015, with many sections dedicated to the elderly.

Functional and clinical outcomes of patients aged younger and older than 85 years after rehabilitation post‐hip fracture surgery in a co‐managed orthogeriatric unit

“…The oldest old represent a rapidly growing age group in Italy and worldwide. The absolute number of HF in this segment of the population is expected to rise in the coming years.…”

Interaction effects of region-level GDP per capita and age on labour market transition rates in Italy

“…As discussed in the literature, potential mismatches in productivity, less-updated skills, and seniority-based wages represent crucial factors that lead employers to think that older people who are searching for jobs are less incentivised to work (e.g. Buyse et al 2013;Eichhorst et al 2013;IMF, 2014, p.41;Baussola and Mussida 2014;Mazzola et al 2015). An International Monetary Fund (2014, p. 41) report mentions possible action strategies to reduce barriers to re-entry into the labour market for older workers, including implementing anti-discrimination standards, reducing labour taxes, and investing in continuing education during working age.…”

The aging of Europe. The unexplored potential

“…the Case of europe A myriad of modern day European nations are coping with the growing proportion of elderly citizens with Russia [4], Italy [5], Nordic [6], Balkan [7] nations among some notable examples. These changes have brought several important burden in different areas of social life [8].…”