Review of Disabled Elderly in China and Tanzania: The Experience and the Challenges

Abstract

In everywhere there is a sharp increase in population ageing, where the need for amending or creating laws and management that could cover the needs of the disabled elderly in the population. Though, there is no single converging paradigm and countries are experimenting with a number of different approaches.Providing and financing long-term care of the elderly among the most pressing policy issues facing the aging population. A growing population at risk for chronical disability the the very old promises to generate unprecedented right in the demand for long-term care.China demographic change, fueled by declining levels of fertility, which means that China has one of the fastest growing elderly populations in the world. The health of this population segment will have obvious implications for future formal and informal care costs, an issue that is of great concern to Chinese policy makers (Riley, 2004).Tanzania a least developed country located in east Africa is experiencing a rapid aging of elderly where the elderly are living longer. Scholars have suggested that the rapid aging in countries like Tanzania, occurring under premature levels of infrastructure and economic development, may represent extreme challenges for health and social systems to meet the demand for care of aging populations (Frenk, Bobadilla, Stern, Frejka, & Lozano, 1991; Cutler, 2001)A number of studies have illustrated about urban/rural health inequalities among older adults in specific country’s’, though, there is no study that have tried to relate or discuss about two developing country and present the experience and challenges such as in this article aim to illustrate about China and Tanzania. The effort of these two countries is important because there is much to be learned by these two countries in defining the range of policy option and in identifying successful and unsuccessful practices. The review of Tanzania is based on the data in the of HBS 2007 and the review of China is based on National Bureau of Statistics.The advantages and shortcomings of the two systems were analyzed with recommendations for future developments. Such comparisons across nations can inform social policy debates in China and Tanzania as to how to prepare for population aging. The originality of such comparison can shed light on issues for LTC service development in other countries especially the emerging economy ones.

Keywords: Elderly Disability, Developing countries, Long term-care and China and Tanzania