Level of education and disability among the elderly people from Buenos Aires

MALENA MONTEVERDE; ENRIQUE PELÁEZ; DORA CELTON

Viena

Workshop; European Workshop in Health, Mortality and Morbidity: The State of the Ar; 2011

Institute of Demography at the Austrian Academy of Science.

The characteristics and context in which ageing is occurring in Latin America and the Caribbean countries raises questions about future trajectories in the prevalence of disabilities by age. In this context, it is of great importance to study the behaviour of the prevalence of disabilities and analyse the risk factors in populations of the region. The aim of this study is to analyse the prevalence of disabilities among the population 60 years and over in Buenos Aires and to study the differences between groups with different educational levels. The data used was the study "Health, Welfare and Aging"-SABE (Spanish acronym)-for Buenos Aires. Based on this information, we estimate the prevalence of disabilities by level of education and we analyse the effects of different risk factors on the likelihood of developing disability among individuals with different levels of education. Results suggest that educational level acts as a major protector against the risk of suffering from disabilities in ADL and IADL and the relationship would be partially mediated by health profiles of individuals. If the level of education is an important determinant of health profile and disability of the population, to what extent is the social context in which population ageing is occurring in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean not inducing an expansion of the morbidity process?