The Ongoing Process of Aging and Health in Middle-Income Countries

Some decades go Mexico was a low-income country. Now it is in a middle-income level, albeit full of disparities including poverty. Such socio-economic path has shaped the life course of the elderly population. Development has been slower than the rapid aging process and its effects on health and social security. Emerging chronic diseases are major causes of morbidity, disability and death, along with prevailing infectious diseases. Social security is on the verge of bankruptcy. The macro situation because of aging is complex. Holistic prospective scenarios drafted over a changing age structure foresee and unaffordable epidemiological transition, impossibility to pay vested pension rights, economic insecurity, poverty, inadequate health system. Looking for elucidation such scenarios can be compared with similar experiences in, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.