Multimorbidity, or the co-occurrence of two or more long-term health conditions in one person, is seen as one of the greatest challenges to contemporary healthcare services. As the WHO explains: “the ageing population, less healthy lifestyles and an increasing incidence of chronic conditions mean that multimorbidity is on the rise. This trend is a major health care challenge facing all …
Tag Archives: Aging
AMAA on Inequalities of Aging: Paradoxes of Independence in American Home Care
This article is part of the series: Ask-Me-Almost-Anything (AMAA): Centering Student Engagement with Ethnographic Monographs
Questions developed by the members of CU Denver’s ANTH4600/5600, S2021: Kaylynn Aiona, Delilah Chavarria, Darcy Copeland, Keaton Green, Ari Jones, Caitlin Konchan, Chris Kuelling, Kuba Kwiecinski, Rosa Lawrence, Destinee Murray, Alexa Powell, Benin Rahma, George Sanchez, Emma Vittetoe, Renee Watson, and Abby Welch
Instructor’s note: Reading “Inequalities of Aging” during an ongoing pandemic and struggles for racial justice lent Elana …
Surviving COVID-19
This article is part of the series: The Age of COVID-19
Survival. Perhaps the word carries more weight today than ever. We are all engaged in this exercise of collective survival. Many of us have found ourselves forced to become accustomed to the unwelcome novelty of the burden of extreme uncertainty. And it is only now that we can understand what it means to live in vulnerability. We now found ourselves …
Falling off the cliff: Mythical sacrifice mirrored in Sweden’s Covid-19 response
This article is part of the series: The Age of COVID-19
Ättestupa is the Swedish word given to a number of steep cliffs. The myth of the ättestupa holds that in prehistoric Nordic times, older community members would throw themselves off a precipice for the sake of the greater good during famines or crises. The harrowing myth of ritual sacrifice has shown up in recent popular culture, such as in the …
Social Life of Chronic Living
This article is part of the series: Chronic living
Chronicity, ageing, and social life
Old-age related health conditions evolve into both a dynamic and an inert chronicity which, in the end, produces a particular quality of life when growing old: the chronification of uncertainty, insecurity, and unpredictability (Manderson, Cartwright & Hardon 2016; Eeuwijk 2020). The fragility and volatility of individual biologies cascades older persons not only into new bodily …
‘Weather-ing’ the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the UK
This article is part of the series: The Age of COVID-19
Few things are more stereotypically British than discussing the weather. A sense of national pride seems to pervades this discussion. In fact, during our time in the UK (as three of the co-authors grew up outside the UK), we have viewed it as an art form, and one we very much enjoying trying our hand at. It is almost comforting …