Rethinking Age and Aging - Essay Example

A Critical Review of “Rethinking Age and Aging” The article, “Rethinking Age and Aging,” written by Warren Sanderson and Sergei Sacherbov, deals with the unprecedented increase in life expectancy and its overall impact on people and nations across the world. The authors propose that because of this increase, the “concept of age has become more complicated” entailing a modification of behavior in people to adjust to the phenomenon (Sanderson & Scherbov 3). As a result, “40-year-olds began to act more like 30-year-olds” in the olden days (3).

This observation is very apt as people tend to feel young when they expect to live longer. Similarly, the authors stress on the change in lifestyle, which can be construed as both the cause and effect of the increase in life expectancy. The authors further contend that the role of “prospective age is important” because it can help people to plan their lives and live it accordingly (6). Besides, they also state further advantages of prospective age perception as it can assist people in interacting with “changes in the design of pension plans” and also help the government to determine various policies for implementation for the welfare of the old aged people (6).

The authors also illustrate the means of computing prospective age as well as define old age in such a way that even laymen can understand the concepts. The authors support all of their contentions in the article with the help of diagrams and tabulated data to facilitate easy assimilation of the information. Besides, the discussions that the authors offer about old age dependency ratio are also complemented with exhaustive tabulated data to help the readers ingest the information comprehensively.

On the other hand, the article identifies certain limitations of quantitative demographic data, which considers only numerical aspects of the research. However, the article can be an effective tool not only for people interested in population statistics, academicians and students in the field but also for the public at large. Works CitedSanderson, Warren & Scherbov. Rethinking Age and Aging. Population Bulletin. 2008. Web. 6 October 2012. < http://www.prb.org/pdf08/63.4aging.pdf>