Introduction

The goal of this OER is to support, stimulate and facilitate teaching around equity in aging. Our aim is to offer a learning resource that helps address these concerns by providing teaching prompts and activities from an EDIA (equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility) standpoint. This resource is intended for use across disciplines within the postsecondary context, as well as for professional development purposes for practitioners in healthcare settings.

The world’s population is aging, according to the World Health Organization, in 2020 the number of people over the age of 60 outnumbered the number of children under the age of five (WHO, 2024). They also projected that by 2030, 1 in 6 people worldwide will be over the age of 60. In Canada, as of 2021, nearly 1 in 5 people are over the age of 65 or just under 19% of the population (Statistics Canada, 2022a). The Maritime provinces of Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador) have a higher percentage of older adults at 22%, than the national average (Statistics Canada, 2022b).

Older people are an extremely diverse population and are affected by their lived experiences, such as the contextual factors throughout their life. From their growing up environment to current social connects to experiences of oppression and marginalization (Moody & Mojbafan, 2024). For example, older women are more vulnerable to poverty due to inequalities in pension benefits or caregiving obligations (United Nations, 2020). In addition to addressing diversity in healthcare needs, it is important to consider ageism and how it intersects with social, cultural and economic inequities that exist within the current healthcare structures. In the healthcare setting, this is may be experienced by older people as exclusion from procedures or therapies due to age or lack of involvement in consent (Nemiroff, 2022).

The COVID -19 drew attention to not only the complexity in caring for older people but highlighted the urgent need to address inequities and examine intersectionality in aging and health. This is demonstrated through increasing social, economic and cultural inequities that impact the well-being and health outcomes of older people. In many cases this is seen through housing disparities, food insecurity and access to comprehensive health care that includes medication, dental and eyecare coverage (Colarossi, 2024).

Throughout this OER we draw on the work of Kimberle Crenshaw, identifying intersectionality as an approach that recognizes there are many ways racism, sexism, class oppression, transphobia, able-ism and other types of oppression contribute to the lived experiences and marginalization of older people that has traditionally been invisible (Crenshaw, 1989). We adopt this lens to make visible the complex and very diverse experiences of older people. We also adopt a constructivist perspective to examine the concepts of aging and older people, highlighting how historical and social factors have contributed to the understanding and experiences of aging.

References

Crenshaw, K. (1989) “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989, Article 8.
Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8

Colarossi, J. (2024). The ingredients of unequal aging: Housing, income and health. The Brink. Available from: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/the-ingredients-of-unequal-aging/

Moody, E., & Mojbafan, A. (2024). Contextual Factors Influencing Health of Older Adults. In …

Nemiroff, L. (2022). We can do better: Addressing ageism against older adults in healthcare. Healthcare Management Forum. 35(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704221080882

Statistics Canada. (2022a). In the midst of high job vacancies and historically low unemployment, Canada faces record retirements from an aging labour force: number of seniors aged 65 and older grows six times faster than children 0-14 [webpage]. (Access June 26, 2024). Available from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220427/dq220427a-eng.htm

Statistics Canada. (2022b). Map 4: The populations of the Atlantic provinces are aging quickly. Available from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220427/mc-a004-eng.htm

United Nations. (2020). UN Decade of Healthy Ageing: Plan of Action 2021–2030. Available from: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/decade-of-healthy-ageing/decade-proposal-final-apr2020-en.pdf?sfvrsn=b4b75ebc_28

World Health Organization. (2024). Ageing and Health [webpage]. (Accessed June 26, 2024). Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health