Abstract:

This inter-university project carried out by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona) and Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Barcelona) has studied the changes of the population.

The project describes and analyses the trend in life expectancy evolution in various European Union countries, from the early 1960s until today. It is during this period that gender-based differences begin reaching significant convergence between male and female’s life expectancy rates with the greatest convergence occurring in 2011, even though women still reach higher average life expectancy. In order to explain this inequality trend regarding European life expectancy and to provide specific information to the population we have created a Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/PublicHealthforelderly

This web page presents ideas and tools for caregivers for elderly people. It also suggests teaching materials for teachers.

The conceptual framework of the epidemiological transition theory and the nutrition transition has been used for this research. Women continue to break the epidemiological patterns. Data and information compiled from the Eurostat as well as different mortality rate tables by sex and age have been used. Additionally, based on the International Classification of Diseases, the leading causes of death since 1960 have been studied to assess the structural transformations that the population has experienced due to the increasing life expectancy rate, and its impact on health disparities taking into account the vulnerability of survival of the current elderly population.

Keywords:

Innovation technologies, life expectancy, public health, demography, nutrition.