The latest technology is even more beneficial for the old than for the young. NO MATTER HOW much lifespans are being stretched, the very last chapter is often grim. From the age of 80, in the rich world one person in five will be afflicted with some form of dementia, one in four will suffer from vision loss and four in five will develop hearing problems.
Of those who make it to 90, the majority will have at least one health problem that counts as a disability; many will have multiple ones. Unfairly, for poorer and less well-educated people this decline often starts sooner.
In former times, the old used to spend this final, increasingly dependent phase at home, looked after by relatives. Over the past century, as ageing in the rich world became medicalised, care for the elderly was outsourced to retirement or nursing homes (a model that emerging economies such as China are now beginning to copy). But most old people do not want to live in institutions for long periods, and the cost of such care is exorbitant. So the new buzz phrase is “ageing in place”.
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