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Southern
Italy's Elderly Suffer Poor Health Yahoo News, May 7, 2003
FLORENCE (Reuters Health) - Italians who grow old in the south of the
country are likely to suffer more illness than their northern compatriots,
according to data released Wednesday at a meeting in Rome. The
National Center for Epidemiology and Health Surveillance surveyed 2,500
people older than 65 from 11 Italian regions. The
results highlight a drastic "split between the North and South,"
according to its report. In
the South, elderly people are less isolated and more integrated into the
social fabric, but they are also tend to be sicker, less self-sufficient,
more likely to need hospitalization and less likely to get vaccinated. "On
the contrary, elderly people living in the North are less ill, are given
influenza vaccines and suffer less from cognitive disorders,"
according to the report. The
health systems of Italy's more-rural southern regions are routinely shown
to be less robust than those in the north, where the bulk of the country's
wealth is clustered. The
current national government has come under fire for giving some
health-budget control to the regional authorities. Doctors groups and
others say this will only serve to worsen disparities in health care. Overall,
arthritis is the most common disease among older adults, followed by high
blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases, respiratory problems,
osteoporosis, diabetes and stroke. "Elderly
in the North and South have one point in common -- they share a large
consumption of drugs," according to the report. Up
to 91 percent of those interviewed said they took medicines in the past
week, while up to 60 percent took more than four different drugs. The
most-used drugs are those for cardiovascular diseases, followed by
gastrointestinal and anti-inflammatory drugs. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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