By Nazariah Shar’ie Janon
Life expectancy at birth of Malaysians increased from 65.01 years in 1971 to 76.31 years in 2020, growing at an average annual rate of 0.33% (Knoema, 2021). This data is closely linked to the proportion of the population by age.
Based on the data given by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the number of older adults or the elderly aged above 60 years old was 3.4 million in 2019 but increased to 3.5 million in 2020 (10.7% of the total population in 2020) (Borneo Post Online, 2021). The percentage has also increased over the years – 5.2% in 1970, 5.7% in 1990 and 6.3% in the year 2000 (Mafauzy, 2000); this is expected to increase drastically to 5.3 million (15.3%) by 2030 (Malaysia Now, 2021).
The increment will categorise Malaysia as an ageing nation when the percentage of 60 year-old adults is more than 15% of its population. This situation is a cause for concern for the country’s labour force and economy because the older adults are retired and would reduce the number of domestic labour in the workforce. Hence, the number of tax payers is lessened and this may affect the revenue of the country. Another concern is that the government has to be financially prepared to support the increasing demand for healthcare and long pension.
The Malaysian government has taken several actions in preparing for an ageing nation by 2030. In the aspect of research and development in ageing, the Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeingᴿ) (initially known as Institute of Gerontology, UPM) was established in 2002 and upgraded to a national institute in 2015. The institute aims to conduct research on older adults and the issue of ageing from different approaches of gerontology that may provide scientific evidence that could promote successful agieng among Malaysians.
Another effort at the national level to ensure successful ageing among older adults is the establishment of national policies. The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) has published the National Policy for the Elderly (1995) and the National Policy for Older Persons (2011).
Further, the Ministry of Health in 2008 published the National Health Policy for Older Persons. The policies, in one way or another, attempt to empower individuals, families and communities through the provision of elderly-friendly services and enabling environment to improve well-being in old age.
The strategies that they use to attain the goals include lifelong learning, promotion and advocacy, security and protection, management and shared responsibilities, participation and unity across generations, and research and development. Thus, the efforts taken by the ministry and agencies play an important role in managing the increasing number of the elderly at the present time and preparing to become an ageing nation in the near future.
In addition to the national policies for older adults, the other way forward that could contribute to successful ageing is the contributions of psychology, in particular, developmental psychology. Being a branch of knowledge that studies the developmental processes of different domains across ages, including the adulthood stages (early, middle and late), it is important for researchers and experts in developmental psychology to explore the important age-related concepts that may cause or interact with ageing issues, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the developmental concepts that past studies have found to consistently predict resilience in facing life issues during old age are physical health, social networking, and self-efficacy (Fuller-Iglesias et al. 2008).
A study on COVID-19 among older adults found that proactive coping is the new resilient factor for older adults in dealing with COVID-19 stress (Pearman, Hughes, Smith & Neupert, 2021). This may be related to their self-efficacy as Klaiber, Wen, and DeLongis (2021) found that older adults have higher perceived coping efficacy than young adults. Therefore, they are likely to be more confident in facing the threats of COVID-19.
With the new findings regarding COVID-19 and resilience among older adults, there is a need for researchers from the developmental psychology discipline to further explore other protective factors of resilience among older adults. This is because the more protective factors for resilience are known and developed by older adults, the higher the tendency for them to gain quality and successful ageing. ***
(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nazariah Shar’ie Janon is an academic in Department of Psychology, KIRKHS. She specialises in Developmental Psychology, and conducts research on child development, and adolescent development issues)