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Updated 7/28/15 4:45pm | During last week’s World Cup Semi Final games,Alert1hosted our ownAging in Place World Cup Semi Finals. Today, we are going to finish our Aging in Place World Cup with the same competitors from the final match in the FIFATM2014 World Cup: Germany vs. Argentina! Our Aging in Place World Cup will have two countries face off on a number of categories that evaluate senior wellness in each country. For this final match, we have included some additional criteria to make a complete and robust comparison of senior living options.
Alert1 Aging in Place World Cup Predictions
Alert1 predicted the 2014 FIFATMWorld Cup Final would be an extremely close game. Germany only won after Mario Götze scored a goal in extra time. The final score was 1-0 Germany. In the Aging in Place World Cup, we expect Germany to win as it is a developed country. Developed countries on average tend to do better with elder care planning and aging in place. However, based on Argentina’s earlier matches, Alert1 predicts Germany won’t have a runaway victory. Ultimately, we believe that Germany will become the World Champion with the same score as its FIFATMWorld Cup Final match: 1-0.
National Policy on Aging in Place
One of the best ways to measure whether a country supports its seniors in aging is to see if that country has a national policy on aging.
As you would expect, Germany has a well-known national policy on aging. It is called the Strategy on Demography 2012. This strategy singled out promoting independent living for seniors, aka. aging in place. Argentina also has a national policy on aging. This policy is called the National Program for Active Ageing and Health for Seniors in 2007. It was created through a Ministerial Resolution, which is similar to an Executive Order.
Both Germany and Argentina have outlined national policies on aging. Thus, neither Germany nor Argentina manage to score here, keeping the score 0-0.
Seniors’ Health
Another vital aspect of aging in place is the ability to stay healthy. We used life expectancy as the primary indicator for this. As expected, Germany wins on life expectancy by three years over Argentina. An average German citizen’s life expectancy is 80 years, while Argentina’s is 76 years and 11 months.
Access to caregivers for seniors is vital in supporting aging in place. We used the elderly dependency ratio to measure seniors’ ability to get caregivers. This number is the ratio between the number of elderly and the number of working-age people in a country. The smaller the number, the better. This is because a shortage of caregivers would make seniors more likely to live in a residential home, which means being less likely to age in place. Germany’s elderly dependency ratio is 32.1%. That means in Germany, there is one senior for every three working age people. Argentina is more youthful with a ratio of only 16.9%. Argentina wins by far, as it has abouttwiceas many possible caregivers for each senior.
Seniors’ ability to get medical help is also vital for maintaining good health. We measured this with the number of physicians per 10,000 people. These numbers are extremely close: Germany has 34 while Argentina has 30. However, Germany still barely wins. These numbers are especially good when you consider that the US has only 26 physicians per 10,000 people.
All of the health criteria above deal with health in general. Mental health is a very important aspect of seniors’ health, so we decided to specifically measure for that. We used the relative psychological well-being. This is the ratio of seniors (over 50) that feel like their lives have meaning compared to people 35-49 years of age. Germany’s seniors have a perfect 1:1 ratio while Argentina barely lags behind with 9.7:10. While this is a small difference, Germany still wins here.
In terms of health, Germany manages to score a goal here. This is because it barely won on life expectancy, number of physicians, and relative mental health. However, Germany failed to sweep this section, as Argentina won by far in access to caregivers. The score is now 1-0 Germany!
Financial Status
A seniors’ financial status is key to aging in place because seniors must be able to afford to live independently. One of the best ways to gauge the financial security of seniors is to see how financially well seniors are compared to citizens nationwide. We used the poverty rates to determine this. German seniors on average do better than German citizens nationwide. The senior poverty level rate is only 67.7% of the nationwide one. However, Argentina manages to do even better. Its senior poverty rate is only 46.3% of its nationwide rate. Obviously, Argentina wins here.
Pensions are also extremely helpful to a senior’s finances, so we measured the percentage of seniors who had a pension. If this number is over 100%, it means that pensions start for people before the age of 65. Getting a pension early helps people financially because they get a new stable source of income longer. Germany has a great percentage of 113%, while Argentina manages to do even better with 140%. This means that more Argentinian seniors are getting their pension earlier than their Germany counterparts. Because they are getting their money earlier, Argentinian seniors are better able to prepare for aging in place financially. Thus, here, Argentina also wins by a good margin.
On the area of financial status, Argentina manages to score two goals: one in full time, the other in extra time. This is because Argentina both swept the category as well as won in the criterion with large margins. Our Germany vs. Argentina match is now at 2-1 Argentina.
Results
Ultimately, Argentina wins the Aging in Place World Cup Final with a score of 2-1. This is opposite of what we expected: 1-0 Germany. The aging in place match is very similar to the FIFATM match in that both were very close. In fact, both of them required to go into extra time to settle who truly won. Ultimately, Lionel Messi and Ángel Di María can hopefully be partially assuaged with Argentina winning the Alert1 Aging in Place World Cup!
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