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ROUGHLY A FIFTH of men and women aged 35 or over today will be living with a physical disability in 30 years’ time which will “severely restrict everyday activities”, new research suggests.
Recent analysis published in the online journal BMJ Open shows that the proportions of those living with such disabilities will remain broadly similar – the problem is that given the aging European population (and the fact that people are living longer generally) the absolute numbers will rise significantly.
The researchers warn that this is likely to have considerable implications for the provision of supported care, as well as the training of healthcare professionals.
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The findings are based on the European Union’s Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) collected between 2008 and 2014, and gender-specific life expectancy projections from 2015 to 2050, released by the UN.
Less of the research was focused on the impact of future health trends (a new strain of a disease for example) than on the self-reporting of current issues prevalent among those aged 55 and over in the 26 EU countries studied.
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Likewise, the researchers avoided focusing on those living in care homes, and instead targeted those who would voluntarily self-report as living with a debilitating physical disability.
The rates of those declared as ‘living unhealthily’, meanwhile, across the countries surveyed are broadly similar, according to the researchers.
However, the rate of self-reporting of such disabilities does vary across Europe – for instance, about one in 10 Irish women currently aged over 65 would self-identify as living with a physical disability.
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In eastern bloc countries, that figure is routinely far higher – 34.1% (or three in 10) in Slovakia for example, and 30.2% in Slovenia.
That aside, the researchers estimate that about 21% of female and 16.8% of male Europeans, currently aged 35 or greater, will have “severe long-term activity limitations” by the year 2047.
And Ireland?
Looking closer to home, those figures are 19.9% of Irish women and 16% of Irish men living with activity-restricting disabilities in 30 years.
You can read the full report here
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It’s only a matter of time. driving accounts for 30% of male employment worldwide. When vans trucks light rail taxis are driverless there will be an unemployment disaster.
exactly Patrick, rise of the machines technology is not always a good thing.
I don’t think I’d be ready to trust this technology anyway.
Automation has been killing jobs for centuries and will continue to do so for millennia.
As always people will have to adapt and adjust careers accordingly.
Can’t hold back progress.
Do you have a source for that, Patrick?
Those guys can work at something else. This is a great thing. Can’t wait for driverless cars.
Taxi drivers, van drivers, lorry drivers, bus drivers all looking at this and feeling a bit uneasy I’d imagine… on the plus side if it can take me home from the pub on a Friday night it won’t be the worst thing in the world
I look at advancements in technology in my sector and feel the same uneasiness. Can either sit back and do nothing, or look to try and learn new skills.
Who’s going to clean the puke off the seat before you get in.. Or who will wake up the drunk passenger in the back seat.. Self drive taxis may work well in some places but will not work well at 4am on a Saturday night in Dublin..
I would imagine there will be multiple internal cameras. Plus payment will be by card only. If camera catches a passenger damaging the car i.e. Puking…charge to card straight away.
Problem is technology/AI is advancing so quickly it is now replacing humans rather yhan just impeovibg the work place. Imagine the fin hackers will have with automated vehicles!??
Cheer up, planes still have pilots.
By the time the driver realizes that an accident is imminent it is generally too late to grab control. Safe driving requires forward planning and anticipation. You cannot be plunged into an emergency manual override position moments from disaster and expect to avoid it.
There’s many reported cases by Teslas stopping accidents before the driver even realised one was happening. Loads on dash cam vids and accounts on motoring forums. The tech is already saving lives. Given the number of road deaths here and around the world we’d be mad not to pursue this.
have your say