60.8% of the population aged 60 years old and older had at least one comorbidity in 2022

The National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), when presenting the results of the Demographic and Family Health Survey (ENDES 2022), reported that, 60.8% of people aged 60 years old and older in the country, showed at least one comorbidity, as is the case with arterial hypertension, obesity and diabetes mellitus.

Among the risk factors that affect this population group, hypertension was highlighted, first of all, which despite affecting 51.5% in 2022, showed a decrease of 1.8 percentage points compared to the year 2021 (53.3%). The same trend showed the disease diabetes mellitus by going from 13.8% in 2021 to 13.7% in 2022.

With regard to the population aged 60 years and older who are overweight, this condition increased from 24.8% in 2021 to 26.8% in 2022; to a lesser extent obesity increased from 16.8 to 16.9% in 2022.

According to gender, it was detected that the incidence of these diseases was higher in men (64.6%) than in women (56.5%) and, in the population residing in the urban area (65.0%) and on the coast (67.0%).

ENDES 2022 revealed that 54.3% of the population aged 60 years old and older had very high cardiovascular risk according to their abdominal perimeter, followed by 21.9% who showed high risk and 23.7% who reported low risk.

The INEI reported that 13.7% of the population are people aged 60 years old and older, of whom 8.4% live in overcrowded households; 11.6% live alone or with non-family members; and 32.3% live with people aged 17 years old and younger.

In 2022, 23.3% of the population aged 60 years old and older had a visual acuity assessment, followed by 22.9% who were diagnosed with cataracts and 28.8% who had difficulty seeing from a distance.