Diseases that affect retirees and ways to help them live healthy
Mrs. Habiba Salisu, a retired civil servant, spends most of her monthly retirement benefits on drugs.
The retiree who is also a member of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), expressed disappointment that there was no social security cover for the healthcare of elderly citizens in the country.
“Pensioners are really suffering. In terms of health, we have nothing. You go to the hospital and you have to pay for everything from your pocket. You know, when you are aging, your health deteriorates faster.
The drugs are so expensive that you cannot even use your monthly pension to purchase them. There are some of us who live on drugs, we spend a lot of money,” she said.
Retirement heralds many health challenges such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and osteoarthritis partly due to old age, experts have told Daily Trust.
It also significantly increases the risk of being diagnosed with a chronic condition.
A Swiss researcher, Stefanie Behncke, found that retirement “raises the risk of developing a cardiovascular disease and being diagnosed with cancer. Estimates also indicate that retirement has quite diverse effects for different individuals.”
Dr. Ibrahim IbbiYusuf of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital corroborated the Behncke’s findings on the relationship between old age and increased risk of diseases.
Dr. Ibbi-Yusuf pointed out that Parkinson’s disease is a major disease affecting retirees and old people in general.
Parkinson’s disease is caused by the progressive impairment of nerve cells in an area of the brain and there is no known cures except several treatment options, including drug therapy or surgery that can reduce the symptoms, and make living with the disease easier.
One factor that makes retirees susceptible to diseases is advancement in age as the retirement age in Nigeria is 65 years or 35 years in service, whichever comes first.
Globally, just like in Nigeria, the population is ageing rapidly and WHO estimates that between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years will nearly double, from 12 per cent to 22 per cent.
This indicates that if deliberate attention are not paid to diseases likely to affect retirees and old persons in general, the health system may be overwhelmed by the their health challenges in the near future.
For instance, mental health and emotional wellbeing are as important in older age as at any other time of life and it is estimated that about 15 per cent of adults aged 60 and above suffer from a mental disorder.
A Chief Consultant Orthopedic surgeon, who is also the Coordinating Consultant of Supreme Hospital Limited, Abuja, Dr. Sule Ahmed, said that many retirees suffer from ‘disease of old age’ like hip displacement, joint displacement, and spinal complications.
He said some of these complications need expensive surgeries which are most times beyond the meagre pension of retirees.
The surgeon said the National Health Insurance Scheme does not cover retirees, thereby worsening their situation.
He advised retirees to avoid idleness as it contributes to diseases that can be avoided if one lives an active life.
Also, a study published in the Gerontological Society of America showed that muscle diseases are not rare in elderly patients, including retirees.
A pension expert, Dr. James Nwaja, told Daily Trust that Nigeria has one of the worst social security for retirees in the world, adding that apart from pension and gratuity, there are little or no social security cover for pensions both at the federal and state levels.
A member of the National Association of Retired Paramilitary Officers (NARPO), Ibrahim Musa, said: “We have been neglected. We need to have hospitals in our zonal areas to enable us take care of our health.”
Abdulkadir Usman, a pension administrator, said pensioners in Nigeria are suffering due to absence of social security that could argument their meagre pensions. He added that Nigeria needs a Social Security Act to complement the existing Employees Compensation Act (ECA), which was passed into law in 2011.