Old age and elderly people: social representations of adolescent students

OBJECTIVE: to know the main elements of social representations about elderly people and old age among adolescents at a public high school. METHOD: 172 adolescents between 14 and 19 years of age participated. The free evocation of words technique was applied through the terms elderly and old age. RESULTS: The main elements of the representations significantly designed for elderly people were: respect and disrespect, 78; experience, 49; care, 32; wisdom, 23; fragility, 19. For old age: disease, 51; retirement, 27; experience, 27; wisdom, 19; wrinkles, 17. The social representations of adolescents are strongly marked by physical, psychological and social aspects, with positive and negative aspects about old age. CONCLUSION: Participatory health education activities are needed to make adolescents critically reflect on and the condition of elderly people in contemporary society

Contribution of chronic conditions to gender disparities in disability in the older population in Brazil, 2013

To assess the contribution of chronic conditions to the disability burden in the older men and women in Brazil. Data from 10,290 participants of the Brazilian National Health Survey in 2013 aged 60 years or older were used. Disability was defined based on limitations in activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Binomial additive hazards models were fitted to assess the contribution of chronic conditions to the disability prevalence. Back pain was the most common condition, followed by diabetes and heart diseases in men and arthritis and diabetes in women. Stroke and mental disorders were by far the most disabling conditions in men and women. A higher disability prevalence was observed in women (34.4 %, CI 32.4; 36.2 %) compared to men (28.4 %; CI 25.9; 30.8 %). The most important contributors to the disability prevalence were stroke, back pain, and arthritis among men, and diabetes, heart diseases, and arthritis in women. Interventions to reduce disability in the older population in Brazil should take into account the gender gap in the occurrence of chronic conditions, focusing on the main contributors to the disability burden