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The Elderly in the Commonwealth Caribbean: A Review of Research Findings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Farley Brathwaite
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of the West Indies, Barbados.

Abstract

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Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

NOTES

1 The case of Barbados demonstrates this point very clearly. Available data from: Reports on Vital Statistics and Registration in Barbados for the years 1940 and 1980, Government of Barbados, Bridgetown, Barbados; Massiah, Joycelyn, ‘The population of Barbados: demographic development and population policy in a small state, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of the West Indies, Bridgetown, Barbados, 1981, table V: 13, p. 76Google Scholar; Binstock, R. et al. (ed.), International Perspectives on Ageing: Population and Policy Challenges, United Nations Fund for Population Activities, New York, 1982, p. 19Google Scholar. Ebanks, G., ‘Barbados’, in Segal, A. (ed.), Population Policies in the Caribbean, Lexington Books, 1975, pp. 3536Google Scholar. These show that between 1940 and 1980, death rates in Barbados declined from 26.7 per thousand to 8.6 per thousand, that life expectancy over the period 1921–65 rose from 28.5 years for males and 32.9 years for females, to 65.5 years for males and 70.9 years for females respectively, and that fertility rates declined from 29.2 per thousand in 1940 to 16.4 per thousand in 1980. Finally, available migration statistics indicate that between 1951 and 1970 there was a net loss by way of migration of 32,600 persons, most of them young, from a population which was 193,680 in 1946 and 236,891 in 1970.

2 Brathwaite, F. (ed.), The Elderly in Barbados, Caribbean Research and Publications Inc., Barbados, 1986.Google Scholar

3 A. Downes undertook a secondary analysis of some of the data originally collected for the Elderly in Barbados study cited above with the title ‘A note on the distribution of income and expenditure among the elderly in Barbados 1982’, unpublished.

4 Dann, G., The Quality of Life In Barbados, Macmillan, London, 1984, p. 84.Google Scholar

5 Alfonzi, S. et al. ,‘Social psychological characteristics of the elderly’Google Scholar, in Brathwaite, F. (ed.), op. cit., pp. 76111Google Scholar; Brathwaite, F., ‘It's employment that Barbadians are most concerned about’, Nation newspaper, Bridgetown, Barbados, 12 12 1980, p. 7.Google Scholar

6 Hinds, R. et al. , ‘Social relationships among the elderly’Google Scholar, in Brathwaite, F. (ed.), op. cit. pp. 112157.Google Scholar

7 Burke, F. and Lorde, R., ‘Retirement and employment among the elderly,’Google Scholar in Brathwaite, F. (ed.), op. cit. pp. 158172.Google Scholar

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9 Pan America Health Organisation (PAHO), A Profile of the Elderly in Guyana, Publication ID 4839 G, PAHO, Washington DC, 1988Google Scholar; PAHO, A Profile of the Elderly in Trinidad and Tobago, Publication ID 4279 G, PAHO, Washington DC, 1987.Google Scholar

10 Fraser, H., Special Report for the Commonwealth Caribbean Medical Research Council, The Medical Needs of the Elderly, Kingston, Jamaica, 1982, mimeoGoogle Scholar; Grell, G. (ed.), The Elderly in the Caribbean, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica, 1987.Google Scholar

11 Mahy, G., ‘Depression in the elderly’, in Fraser, H. and Hoyos, M. (eds), Medical Update: Barbados 1987, University of the West Indies, Bridgetown, Barbados, 1987.Google Scholar

12 LaGrenade, L., ‘Skin disorders in the elderly West Indian’Google Scholar, in Grell, G. (ed.), op. cit. pp. 138–47Google Scholar; Cottenell, A. V. H., ‘Malignancy in the aging patient’Google Scholar, in Grell, G. (ed.), op. cit. pp. 182190Google Scholar; Williams, W., ‘Rural diseases in the elderly’Google Scholar, in Grell, G. (ed.), op. cit. pp. 155163.Google Scholar

13 Hinds, G., ‘Attitudes of children aged 5–10 years old towards the elderly’, unpublished Caribbean Studies Thesis, University of the West Indies, Bridgetown, Barbados, 1986Google Scholar; Reid, C., ‘Attitudes of secondary school children towards the elderly’, unpublished Caribbean Studies Thesis, University of the West Indies, Bridgetown, Barbados, 1986.Google Scholar

14 Deshield, B., ‘Attitudes of registered nurses in a general hospital in Bermuda toward the elderly, unpublished M.A. thesis, New School for Social Research, New York, 1985.Google Scholar