Currently, Iran is facing changes in maternal age pattern, having a growth to over 30s, said Molaverdi, adding that 40 percent of births in the first 9 months of the previous Iranian calendar year 1394 (started March 2015) has been related to mothers over 30.

 

Growing maternal age to 35 will increase congenital abnormalities in children and it imposes high expenditures for related screening tests, YJC quoted Molaverdi as saying on Thursday. 

 

Population rate is one of the basic factors in evaluating a county’s power, she noted.

 

Currently, more than 6.5 million people over 65 years of age are living in Iran, with the aging population rate of 8.2 percent which has a growth compared with the population rate of 8 percent in the Iranian calendar year 1393 (March 2014-2015), said Molaverdi.

 

It is predicted that during the current Iranian calendar year the population of aged people over 60 will reach to 10 percent of the total population and in next 20 years it will pass the rate of 12 percent which leads the country to the crisis of aging population, she added. 

 

NM/