The majority of elderly people in Portugal do not suffer from depression and the prevalence of mood disorders and anxiety are generally lower in older age groups, according to a report by the Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute.
“Although aging is often associated with sadness, loneliness, dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms, also due to the losses and events that occur more frequently at this stage of life, most “older people are not depressed”says the report “Aging in Health: Characterization of the health of the elderly population in Portugal”, released this Monday.
The document states that although the prevalence of depression is lower in the elderly compared to younger age groups, “it is the most common psychiatric disorder in the elderly population with a documented impact on quality of life , constituting an important predictor of mortality”.
“Due to the impact on quality of life and the fact that the presentation of symptoms that characterize these disorders may appear differently in this population subgroup, anxiety and depression remain a relevant aspect in public health”, highlights the report, which presents information from various national and European sources, from health surveys and national studies until December 2021.
The latest available data, from 2019, indicated a higher frequency of the presence of depressive symptoms and depressive symptoms indicative of major depression in the Portuguese population aged 65 and over, compared to the mother. European Union Day.
Regarding dementia, the study states that “it has a very low mortality rate in the population between 65 and 74 years old”, but it becomes the sixth cause of death in the group aged 85 and over. It should be noted, however, that in Portugal, There is no epidemiological study that portrays the situation of this problem.
A review study that focused on EU member countries where prevalence studies had been carried out, which did not include Portugal, presented an estimate for the population aged 65 and over between 5.9% and 9. .4%.
The report states that, in general, some aspects associated with aging in Portugal were similar to the European average, even though the Portuguese elderly population presented, in 2019, higher levels of difficulties in carrying out activities of daily living, which has “an important impact on the participation and inclusion of this population”.
“The differences between Portugal and the European Union probably reflect differences in terms of material living conditions, health practices and access to health care, among others”, state the authors of the work.
According to preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute, elderly people represented, in 2021, around 23.4% of the resident population. Since 2000, the number of elderly people has been greater than that of young people (0-14 years old). In 2011, for every 100 young people living in Portugal, there were 127 elderly people, a figure that increased to 167 in 2020.
But aging is not the same across the country, says the report, indicating that, in 2020, the Alentejo and Centro regions were the most aged, while Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, the Azores and Madeira were those with the lowest aging rate.
The aging of the population also contributed to the transformation of the structure of the labor market, with an increase in the employed population between 2010 and 2020.
“The increase in average life expectancy, desertification and the transformation of the role of the family in modern societies will certainly have contributed to explaining the observed changes and differences that occur between the country’s regions”, he highlights.
It was in the regions of Lisbon (22%), Alentejo (22%) and Algarve (21%) that there were the highest percentages of elderly people living alone, unlike the North region and the Azores, with 17% each.
