Public Health Physician, Dr James Prah has described as positive the rate at which the elderly population is increasing in Ghana.
His comment is in response to the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) thematic brief which found that the elderly population, that’s those aged 60 years and above increased almost 10 times in the past six decades from 213,477 in 1960 to almost 2 million (1,991,736) in 2021.
The thematic brief examined the profile of the elderly population with key indicators of their well-being.
Reacting to this development in an exclusive interview with ATL FM NEWS, Dr James Prah, who is also the Deputy Director of Health Services at the University of Cape Coast, said “It is a good thing the proportion of old ones is increasing. What this means is that life expectancy is increasing.”
According to him, the increase in the number of the elderly population leaves the youth with a lesson; giving them hope that if they do the right things, they will also get there.
Dr. Prah also notes that “it means the things that can cut short the lives of people are being curbed.”
He explains that in the past, the chances of a child growing up to hit 60 or 65 years were low.
This is because before the child will turn about 5 or 10 years, he or she would have been killed by a childhood killer disease.
This has been curtailed by childhood vaccination extending the years of the children.
He also attributes the increase in the lifespan of individuals in recent times to the continuous public education on healthy eating habits and the need to abstain from alcohol intake.
Dr Prah believes people are acting on the information churned out to them adding that as a result, diseases that could kill people when they reach their middle age have also been reduced.
“Now we also have quality drugs for managing conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, among others. All these are helping to extend the lifespan of Ghanaians,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Statistical Service says the increasing ageing population calls for an assessment of Ghana’s preparedness to safeguard the well-being of the growing numbers of older persons in the country.
To this end, Dr. James Prah implored government and stakeholders to establish policies, systems, and structures that can safeguard the well-being of older persons.
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Source: Rosemond Asmah/ATLFMNEWS
