GENEVA: Being afraid of growing old may shorten your life, the UN health agency said on Thursday, as new data highlighted the widespread prevalence of ageist attitudes worldwide.

In a first-of-its-kind survey released by the World Health Organisation, 60 per cent of respondents said they believed older people “were not respected.” Attitudes towards older people were more negative in richer countries, according to the data from more than 83,000 respondents, who were 18 years of age and older in 57 countries.

The data confirms “that ageism is extremely common,” said John Beard, WHO’s head of Aging and Life Course.

He warned that discriminatory and negative views about older people can have sweeping consequences, including for younger people.

“There is very good evidence that people who have negative views of themselves as they grow older... it shortens their lives,” Beard told reporters.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2016