The world economies are losing billions because of ‘ageism’

The latest report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that the world’s economies lose billions of dollars every year simply because of negative stereotypes and prejudices based on age.

Those negative stereotypes transfer into economic data. According to the report, within just one year in the US, negative age-based stereotypes resulted in US$63 billion of additional cost for the eight most expensive health conditions for people over 60. In turn, Australia could earn an additional AUD$48 billion if 5% more people over the age of 55 were employed.

The authors of the report stress that whilst the economic losses are definitely higher, the lack of sufficient data makes it impossible to estimate these.

However, the UN agency points out that age-based stereotypes and discrimination affect people at every level of social life: the workplace, healthcare, and public institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how ageism prevails in public discourse because when it emerged that age became the decision-making factor during the pandemic, the range of healthcare people of a particular age can access, including lifesaving therapies, is being discussed.

The WHO report shows that the application of medical care procedures based on the age of the patient is a common practice. The authors analyzed more than 140 different studies and found that 85% of these indicated that decisions about what kind of treatment and medical procedure a particular patient would receive were made based on the age of each person. The medical staff was less likely to implement life-sustaining therapies as the age of their patients increased thus medical workers more often chose to save the lives of younger people which is explicit discrimination.

The document shows that even though the problem was already present, the pandemic has only deepened it. Furthermore, ageism is widespread even at the level of clinical trials. Very often these are not conducted amongst older people in the fields of cardiology, internal medicine, nephrology, neurology, psychiatry, oncology, or urology, even though the majority of these serious conditions occur in the case of older patients.

In terms of age stereotyping in the workplace, the WHO study showed that ageism may significantly affect older people’s incomes. According to the research, employers were less likely to hire the elderly if younger people were available, despite the greater experience of the older candidate. Older employees also received professional training to develop their qualifications less often.

The WHO discovered this regularity in Spain within six different professions when employers received resumes from candidates with similar qualifications but of different age, they were more willing to choose the younger person. This trend is also reflected by social surveys. One such conducted in 2015 amongst Europeans showed that more than 50% of respondents indicated that, in their opinion, age was a disadvantage for job applicants who were more than 55 years old.

According to the WHO publication, ageism is driven by the media with the authors revealing that TV and the social media, the main opinion shapers today, generally present older people in a negative light as being people who are unattractive, unhappy, unhealthy, lonely, or dependent.