Today's older people are more likely to have sex and divorce
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Today's elderly people are more likely to have sex and divorce, and yet - they are smarter and feel better.
The proportion of old people is growing. By the end of the 21st century, it is estimated that the average life expectancy in Europe will reach 100 years. Meanwhile, the concept of old age is gradually changing, as shown by the forty-year project H70 of the Salgren Academy at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden).
It turned out, for example, that the percentage of older people who received an education above the average, since the 1970s, has increased from 14 to almost 40 - for both sexes. As a result, the current 70-year-olds gain more points when testing for intelligence than their predecessors.
The shares of both married and divorced grew. Erectile dysfunction rates among older men decreased, both sexes practice sex more actively than before.
And social networks have changed. Older people have become more sociable, in their old age they are surrounded by more friends.
At the same time, the state of mental health did not change much. Dementia and severe forms of depression remained at the level of the 1970s, while forms of mild depression began to occur a little more frequently. Nevertheless, older people have become better able to cope with household tasks: the number of people needing help with cleaning has decreased from 25 to 12%, and only 4 percent need help in bathing (rather than 14%, as in the 1970s).
The study began in Gothenburg in 1971. Then about 1000 people born in 1901-1902 were surveyed. They were observed on a permanent basis until the latter died at the age of 105 years. In 2000, they recruited a new group of people born in 1930. They are looked after by the same methods.