MUSCAT: A total of 47 per cent of the elderly population in Oman receive a pension, making it the second country in the Gulf region which highest number of pension-receiving elderly population.
The country of Bahrain topped the list with 70 per cent of elderly citizens who receive a pension, a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) stated.
The report stated that the percentage in Saudi Arabia was 33 percent, Kuwait is 28 percent, the UAE is 23 percent, and Qatar is 19 percent.
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The report said that during the next three decades, the population of most Arab countries will either be aging or have completed the stage. This is something that was impossible to imagine a few decades ago, when the region was experiencing a huge population boom.
The report added that while the number of elderly people, aged 65 years and over, in the Arab region increased by 16 million people in the past 50 years, it is expected to rise by more than 50 million people in the next three decades, reaching 71.5 million by 2050.
Population-ageing has profound economic and social implications, and this report focused on the elderly care ecosystem as an entry point for addressing their priorities and ensuring a decent ageing for all in the region.
The care ecosystem consists of two distinct yet closely related components: social protection and long-term care.
The report highlighted the current situation in the Arab region, where social protection systems are weak and long-term care systems are lagging, stressing that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the vulnerability of the elderly, and highlighted the constraints imposed on the care ecosystem.
The report pointed out that four major non-communicable diseases affect the elderly in the Arab region — cardiovascular diseases including heart attacks, strokes, and cancer, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma), and diabetes. Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in all Arab countries.
The report noted that diabetes accounts for more than 15% of deaths in Bahrain and Qatar among people aged 70 and over, and among the 60-69 age group. This figure ranges from about 10 percent in the UAE, Oman and Qatar, to 22 in cent in Bahrain.
