ENVIRONMENT AND AGING
ENVIRONMENT AND AGING
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环境与老龄化
DOI：
--
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发表时间：
1958
影响因子：
6.3
通讯作者：
H. Illing
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
H. Illing
有人说，我们是一个年轻的国家。这在历史上是正确的，在某种程度上仍然是社会学上的正确；然而，只是在一定程度上。除了社会学家和美国劳工部的统计学家，我们当中几乎没有人意识到，我们正在迅速成为一个老龄化的国家。自1935年国会通过《社会保障法案》以来，我们开始将老年人(而不是老年人)与65岁以上的人联系在一起--根据法律，65岁以上的人有资格享受经济福利的最低年龄限制。当时，即1935年，65岁是随意设定的，尽管立法者意识到年龄因人而异。这在身体上、情感上和社交上都是显而易见的。在为个人提供服务的学科中，特别是受过培训的社会科学实践者将他所服务的人视为一个实体，即根据围绕疾病的情绪和社会因素来考虑医学障碍，或根据伴随的生理和社会变化来考虑情绪疾病。然而，为了这篇文章的目的，讨论将严格限制在什么可以被恰当地称为老龄化的“社会”或环境方面。以前，人们在谈到衰老时会用到“优雅地变老”这一短语。如今，他们把衰老说成是一个“问题”(今天的一切似乎都是如此)。正如一些统计数据可能表明的那样，这是一个问题。在罗马帝国鼎盛时期，人们的平均寿命为23岁。1900年这个国家还只有47岁，但到1940年已经63岁了，据估计，到1960年，平均预期寿命可能达到75岁。因此，65岁以上的人口数量大幅增加。1940年，65岁以上的人口约为900万，而1950年，这一数字超过了1200万。据估计，到1980年，65岁以上的人口将达到2500万到3600万。美国总人口在1930至1940十年间增长了7.2%，而65岁或以上年龄组的增长是这个数字的五倍。我们年轻的国家迅速“变老”的原因是众所周知的--更好的医疗服务，更高的生活水平，更好的公共卫生服务，不断下降的出生率，甚至像限制移民这样一个看起来微不足道的因素。引用加利福尼亚州的一个数字：在管理该州老年保障方案的洛杉矶县公共援助局的许多地区办事处之一--伯班克地区，为10万多人提供服务--1956年11月有8,106笔有效的老年补助金，而十年前不到3,000笔。在同一时期(1956年11月)，加利福尼亚州的赠款总数为265,527笔，而不到五年前为110,000笔。
It is being said that ours is a young nation. This is true historically and still, to some degree, sociologically; however, only to some degree. Few among us, except sociologists and the statisticians of the U. S. Department of Labor, realize that we are fast becoming a nation of aging people. Since 1935, when Congress passed the Social Security Act, we have come to associate the aged (not the aging) with those over 65 years of age-the minimum age limit which by law entitles an individual to eligibility for financial benefits. At that time, namely 1935, the age of 65 was set arbitrarily, although the lawmakers were aware that aging differs from individual to individual. This is evident physically, emotionally, and socially. Among the disciplines which deal in services to individuals it is particularly the practitioner of the social sciences who has been trained to see the human being he is serving as an entity, i.e., to consider a medical disorder in the light of emotional and social factors surrounding the disorder, or to consider an emotional illness in the light of accompanying physiologic and social changes. However, for the purpose of this paper, the discussion will be confined strictly to what can properly be called the "social" or environmental aspects of aging. Formerly people used the phrase "growing old gracefully" when they spoke of senescence. Today they speak of senescence as a "problem" (as everything today seems to be). And a problem it is, as a few statistics may show. During the height of the Roman Empire the average life span was 23 years. It was still only 47 years in this country in 1900, but already 63 years by 1940, and it has been estimated that by 1960 the average life expectancy may reach 75 years. Accordingly, the number of people over 65 has multiplied tremendously. Whereas in 1940 there were approximately 9 million people over 65, there were more than 12 million in 1950. The estimates range from 25 to 36 million people over 65 years of age by 1980. While the over-all United States population increased 7.2 per cent during the decade 1930 to 1940, the age group of 65 or over had an increase of five times that figure. The reasons for our young nation growing rapidly "older" are generally known-better medical services, higher standards of living, improved public health service, a declining birth rate, and even such an apparently insignificant factor as the curbing of immigration. To cite a figure in the State of California: In one of the many district offices of the Bureau of Public Assistance of the County of Los Angeles which administers the Old Age Security Program of the State-the District of Burbank, serving a population of a little over 100,000-there were 8,106 active Old Age grants in November 1956, as compared with less than 3,000 a decade earlier. In the same period (November, 1956) the total number of grants in the State of California was 265,527, as compared with 110,000 less than half a decade earlier.