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POLISH POPULATION REVIEW, 1999, N° 14 Health situation of the elderly in Poland: Medical and socio-demographic aspects
Changes in the health situation in Poland with special reference to elderly population.
The health situation in Poland had been improving in a dynamic way during the first two post-war decades. It was then that common infectious diseases were eradicated, infant mortality reduced, and the life expectancy protracted. Sources of that success should be associated with the same factors as anywhere else in the civilized world as well as with some local factors, connected with social policy accentuating the principles of egalitarianism. However, the for-mer ones - after some period of time - stopped performing well. There appeared some ad-verse phenomena in the health situation reflecting the general socio-economic crisis of real socialism. Those occurrences affected first of all the middle-aged population, and especially males. Stagnation (or even deterioration) of basic health indicators that lasted two further dec-ades reversed only as late as in the 90's. There emerged some symptoms of improvement, the further advancement of which is dependent on various factors related mainly to Poland's eco-nomic development. The health situation of elderly people in the last 50 years was characterised by similar dynam-ics as the whole population, the only exception being the absence of collapse typical of the middle-aged males in the period 1970-1990. The paper reports some data indicating that sub-jective feelings of elderly people on their state of health have deteriorated even in the 90's.
(POLAND, PUBLIC HEALTH, AGED, MORTALITY TRENDS).
English - pp. 9-24.
H. Kirschner, Medical University of Warsaw, Institute of Social Medicine, Warsaw, Po-land.
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The changing demographic patterns and the social conditions of the health status of the elderly.
The health status - meant as the WHO definition - of the elderly is affected by changes in the demographic patterns. Lowering fertility, declining frequency of marriages and the growing number of divorces decrease the probability of finding care on the side of the family after one's reaching a ripe old age. All this enforces changes in the care system for the elderly. The traditional - basing on family bonds - model is being superseded by institutional - financed from public means - forms. In the case of Poland the changes in the care system - especially the care for people requiring it all the time - resulting from demographic conditions are even more important as the Polish society is bound to be subject to acceleration of the ageing proc-esses in the first half of the 21st century.
(POLAND, AGED, HEALTH CONDITIONS, POPULATION DYNAMICS, SOCIAL SE-CURITY, FAMILY WELFARE, AGEING).
English - pp. 25-32.
P. Szukalski, Department of Demography, Institute of Econometrics and Statistics, University of Lodz, Poland.
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The mortality of adult and elderly populations and some of its determinants.
The purpose of this article is to analyse causes and determinants of the mortality of adult and elderly populations. It was assumed in the paper that mortality - however negative it might be - was the most important indicator of the state of health of the society. In particular, the basic threats to health and life were presented in two age groups: 45-64 and 65 and over. Apart from some statistical data the outcomes of epidemiological investigations of 1997 were re-ported in the article. The research covered 1,015 persons and its aim was to estimate the risk of death due to behavioural and socio-economic determinants. In the paper much attention was paid to unhealthy life style: smoking, hard drinking, improper nourishment and to the relation between high risk behaviour and the risk of a premature death.
(POLAND, AGED, ADULT MORTALITY, MORTALITY DETERMINANTS, CAUSES OF DEATH, PUBLIC HEALTH, BEHAVIOUR).
English - pp. 76-87.
H. Worach-Kardas, J. Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland.
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INDULSKI, Janusz; KOWALESKI, Jerzy.
The ageing process of a population as a determinant of the health situation and demand for medical services.
The health situation of a population is a function of age. There are, however, non-demographic factors influencing this situation on a given area. These are life style, environ-mental and genetic conditions, access and quality of health care system. In this paper basing on the Health Interview Survey of the population carried out by the Central Statistical Office in 1996, a perceived health status of the population has been analysed. The paper introduces some characteristics of the emotional frame of mind in connection with age. It also deals with the frequency of disability and chronic diseases related to old age. At the end of the paper some instances exemplifying the diversity of demand for medical services subject to age have been given.
(POLAND, AGEING, HEALTH CONDITIONS, LIFE STYLES, HEALTH SERVICES, MEDICAL CARE, DEMAND).
English - pp. 119-126.
J. Indulski, Institute of Occupational Medicine, Medical Academy of Lodz, Lodz, Poland; J. Kowaleski, Department of Demography, Institute of Econometrics and Statistics, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.
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The demographic and social structure of the elderly people in Lodz and some other big Pol-ish cities.
The biggest Polish cities: Warsaw, Cracow, Lodz, Wroclaw and Poznan are characterised by a large share of elderly people (aged 60 and over) in the total population. The paper presents the ageing process of the populations of the above mentioned cities in the years 1960-1995. Next, the structure of the population of the elderly by sex, age, marital status and education in Lodz and some other big Polish cities is presented. Sources of income of the elderly and their role for the households have also been analysed.
(POLAND, CITIES, DEMOGRAPHIC AGEING, AGED, DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES, SOCIAL CONDITIONS).
English - pp. 132-143.
W. Obraniak, Department of Demography, Institute of Econometrics and Statistics, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.
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Mortality and life expectancy of elderly people in Poland and in Lodz Voivodship.
Poland belongs to the group of countries of high mortality. For several years the highest rate of mortality in Poland has been observed in Lodz Voivodship. The mortality of elderly people is higher here than in other regions of Poland (in the 60-64 age groups, the rate of mortality exceeds by 20% the national total). In older age groups, there increases the share of deaths caused by circulatory system diseases. In the 60-69 age groups there prevail neoplastic dis-eases which diminish in further age groups. Just like for the total population injuries and in-toxications take the third place as causes of deaths of males aged 60-69 whereas in the case of women from this age group it is diabetes. For people aged 70 and over, it is pneumonia and bronchopathy that take the third place as causes of deaths. As a result of high mortality in Lodz Voivodship, the life expectancy is lower here than the national average.
(POLAND, REGIONS, AGED, MORTALITY, CAUSES OF DEATH, DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY).
English - pp. 144-152.
C. Stepien, Department of Demography, Institute of Econometrics and Statistics, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.
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