the life expectancy has risen for people living in industrialized countries. For example, in Canada in 1920, males were expected to live to the age of 58.8; while women were expected to live to the age of 60.6 (Statistics Canada). So old age during this time would have been somewhere between 48 and 53 years of age. These days -1992 statistics- men are expected to live until 74.6 years, while women are expected to live to until 80.9 years. These statistics are Canadian wide. There are some differences between each of the provinces for both males and females, the most substantial being in Saskatchewan-males, 1992- 75.26 and females, 1992- 81.55. There are several reasons for the increased longevity, the biggest one being advances in medicine. Another reason for longer life spans for both men and women is a decrease in hard manual labour. With advances in machinery and computers, people do not have to do some of the dangerous or physically hard jobs such as do some farming work -ploughing the fields, planting the crop or harvesting.
             Another factor that should be discussed at this point is the difference in life expectancy in different countries around the world. In general, industrialized countries have the highest life expectancy, and the developing countries, especially those in Africa, have the lowest. With very few exceptions, females have a higher life expectancy than males. The country with the lowest life expectancy is Chad where the life expectancy for males is 29 years and the life expectancy for females is only marginally better at 35 years (World Book, 1990).
             With these new definitions for old age many changes have had to come about in the social programs aimed at seniors. These include; physical health programs, mental health programs and social community programs. Over the past 25 years there has been a shift from the extended family to the institutionalization of seniors when they are no longer able to ca...