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Follow on Google News | Scientists find new ways for policy makers to plan for agingAccording to an article that appeared in the September 10th issue of Science, government policy-makers and others have been misled about aging because they have used inaccurate measures.
By: Warren Sanderson According to an article that appeared in the September 10th issue of Science, government policy-makers and others have been misled about aging because they have used inaccurate measures. The authors, Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov, show that the main measures used to support policies on aging, show too rapid aging because they ignore the fact that life expectancies are increasing and people are becoming healthier. Sanderson and Scherbov suggest that very different policies would be formulated if policy-makers were to adjust their aging forecasts for improvements in health and longevity. Until recently, policy-makers did not have a choice. There were no forecasts of aging that took longevity into account. In 2008, however, this changed when Sanderson and Scherbov published aging measures for all countries in the world that did life expectancy changes into account (http://www.prb.org/ Sanderson and Scherbov conclude their article by saying: "Population aging will certainly be the source of many challenges in coming decades. But there is no reason to exaggerate those challenges through mismeasurement." You can learn more about the seriousness of the bias in conventional measures of aging and how they affect policies by contacting the authors: Warren Sanderson at: warrencarl@aol.com Sergei Scherbov at: sergei007@hotmail.com End
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