This book reviews the elder care literature pertaining to the Arab world and proposes steps that can be taken to improve the health and quality of life of older people in this region. Organized in three main sections (Program Assessment, Program Planning, Conclusions and Recommendations), the book addresses such topics as developing a conceptual framework; Arab world elder demographics; quality of life issues; demand for services; training issues; training capacity and capabilities; and conclusions and recommendations for improving the health of older persons in the Arab world. While the countries of the Arab world have the advantage of a unified language and culture that can be used to expedite development of area-wide approaches to a system of elder care, the lack of economic and political unification (such as common market and open trade) along with institutionalized age discrimination (some Arab countries restrict hiring for government and private jobs to persons younger than 45) present barriers to improving the health of older people. In addition, modernization and ease of transportation have resulted in a heavy focus on Western-style fast food, with an accompanying increase in chronic diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Past decades have seen great advances in attempts to reduce the problems of smoking, uncontrolled blood pressure, advanced stage uterine cancer, and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, the current growth of socially-related problems have off-set such positive developments. This volume examines the growth of such problems, all of which have social influences as their major components. Topics discussed include AIDS, alcohol abuse, disability and death resulting from crack addiction. Covering policy, theory, research and evaluation, the book identifies that co-operation between the health and social services is the best possible solution. While only representing a small percentage of current health problems, they are also the most rapidly growing sectors of health-related costs to society.