Health, well-being, and aging in Latin America and the Caribbean

The demographics of aging in the Americas are well known. The United Nations has published projections showing that by the middle of this century, Latin America and the Caribbean will have 112 persons 60 years and older for every 100 persons 15 or under. North America will have 148 older persons for every 100 persons 15 or younger. While those numbers are impressive, the phenomenon itself represents more than just numbers.

Population aging has an impact in every dimension of life: the family, the economy, health services, and the general fabric of society. Longevity offers families the gift of multiple exchanges among three and four generations. At the same time, longevity challenges societies to adjust the cycle of work and retirement, and it impels institutions to make the necessary investments so that social service agencies and health care providers have the knowledge and skills needed to offer vital assistance across the life course.

Knowledge-based public health will need to rely on scientific knowledge that looks beyond child development and well-being of the young in order to provide the foundations for maintaining quality of life and function in old age. Planning for an aging society requires data on interrelated domains of life in old age (health, work, income, social relations) in order to guide public health functions and services in meeting the needs of an older population.

This special issue of the Revista Panamericana de Salud Publica/Pan American Journal of Public Health aims to contribute to this body of knowledge by presenting a series of papers covering multiple dimensions of the aging process in Latin America and the Caribbean. The majority of these studies use data generated by a multicenter project that was directed by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and that was called Health, Well-Being, and Aging (Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento) (the “SABE project”). The articles in this issue are the fruits of the investment made by PAHO and its funding partners to develop a new body of knowledge on public health and aging in the Americas.

SABE was developed as a multicenter study under PAHO’s leadership. The SABE study fully engaged a group of researchers from the Region of the Americas, who worked together and took responsibility for all aspects of the study, with coordination and support from PAHO. SABE surveys were conducted in seven cities of the Region: Bridgetown, Barbados; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Havana, Cuba; Mexico City, Mexico; Montevideo, Uruguay; Santiago, Chile; and São Paulo, Brazil. Support that PAHO received from the National Institute on Aging of the United States was very important in all aspects of data management and in the training of researchers in Latin America and the United States to work collaboratively in doing cross-national research. This issue includes an article that provides a brief review of the SABE study methodology and explains how the study was conducted.

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