Literacy of Brazilian elderly over 65 years

Abstract

With the increasing of human longevity and consequently of the elderly population, one must consider a life of quality and autonomy, and the conditions of reading and writing play an important role in the aging process, especially by being inserted in a literate society. In this context, this study proposes to examine the conditions of literacy of people aged at least 65. We used a questionnaire and a reading test containing texts of various kinds for the 72 elderly subjects. The subjects have easy daily access to books, magazines and newspapers. But the link with these materials is still deficient and their restricted conditions of literacy are not interdependent to aspects related to the biological issues. It is necessary a special attention by civil society organizations and by the scientific community to enlarge the understanding of practices of reading and writing in the context of gerontology