Health profile of centenarians in Portugal: a census-based approach

Abstract

BackgroundThe number of centenarians is rapidly increasing in Europe. In Portugal, it has almost tripled over the last 10 years and constitutes one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. This paper aims to describe the health and sociodemographic characteristics of Portuguese centenarians as given in the 2011 census and to identify sex differences.MethodsAll persons living in Portugal mainland and Madeira and Azores islands aged 100 years old at the time of the 2011 census (N = 1,526) were considered. Measures include sociodemographic characteristics and perceived difficulties in six functional domains of basic actions (seeing, hearing, walking, cognition, self-care, and communication) as assessed by the Portuguese census official questionnaires.ResultsMost centenarians are women (82.1 %), widowed (82 %), never attended school (51 %), and live in private households (71 %). The majority show major constraints in seeing (67.4 %), hearing (72.3 %), and particularly in their mobility (83.7 % cannot/have great difficulties in walking/climbing stairs and 80.7 % in bathing/dressing). In general, a better outcome was found for reported memory/concentration and understanding, with 39.1 % and 42.5 % presenting no or mild difficulty, respectively. Top-level functioning (no/mild difficulties in all dimensions concurrently) was observed in a minority of cases (5.96 %). Women outnumber men by a ratio of 4.6, and statistically significant differences were found between men and women for all health-related variables, with women presenting a higher percentage of difficulties.ConclusionPortuguese centenarians experience great difficulties in sensory domains and basic daily living activities, and to a lesser extent in cognition and communication. The obtained profile, though self-reported, is important in considering the potential of social and family participation of this population regardless of their functional and sensory limitations. Based on the observed differences between men and women, gender-specific and gender-sensitive interventions are recommended in order to acknowledge women’s worse overall condition.

Reaching 100 in the Countryside: Health Profile and Living Circumstances of Portuguese Centenarians from the Beira Interior Region

“…With regard to the sociodemographic profile of this group, as expected, women outnumber men and the male/female ratio was 6.1:1 (87 women/14 men). Women represented 86.1% of the centenarians, which is in accordance with the values reported by other studies on centenarians (e.g., [ 30 ]) and with the profile of the overall Portuguese centenarian population [ 29 ] and of the Oporto centenarian study [ 22 ]. More than half of the centenarians (53.4%) never attended school.…”

“…With regard to the type of accommodation, the number of centenarians living in private households (50.6%) is lower than the national rate of 71% [ 29 ]. This may be due to the fact that most of them live in very small isolated areas with a very reduced number of inhabitants, without proper housing conditions, and with a reduced use of technical support and assistance services (e.g., domiciliary care) to enable them to live in their homes.…”

“…For instance, Portugal is one of a reduced number of European countries where there is not a geriatric specialty among physicians. Profiling the oldest old population and their specific use of services has been a recent concern among Portuguese researchers (e.g., [ 28 , 29 ]), but further insights are needed from deprived regions like rural areas, which are indicated as areas of increased risk of poor health [ 25 , 30 , 31 ]. According to Santana [ 32 ], fragile rural communities had higher mortality rates, higher levels of aging population, lower levels of education, poorer geographical accessibility to health care, and higher alcohol consumption.…”

Cohort profile: ‘Centenari a Trieste’ (CaT), a study of the health status of centenarians in a small defined area of Italy

“…Our centenarians tended to live in nursing home/sheltered houses (60%) similarly to centenarians in North European and American countries, such as Denmark 37 (59%) and Georgia (USA 38 ) (56%), although there are also opposite findings, as in Portugal 39 (29%), South Korea 40 (7%) and Japan (Tokyo 41 ) (32%). The Italian Multicenter Study on Centenarians (IMUSCE) results 42 found that only 34% of centenarians lived in a nursing home.…”

Objective vs. Subjective Health in Very Advanced Ages: Looking for Discordance in Centenarians

“…Also great difficulties in sensory domains and basic and instrumental daily living activities (BADL and IADL) have been widely reported in this population [cf. ( 27 – 29 )]. Nevertheless, several investigations are looking to this age group as a prototype of successful aging ( 30 , 31 ) due to their ability to maintain a positive outlook about life.…”