The quality of life of the elderly in romania

Abstract

Ageing brings a number of transformations in individuals` life and they are reflected in the quality of their life. While during the working years an individual carries out an incomegenerating activity for the daily living, retirement causes both physiological and psychological changes. Physiological transformations consist in a gradual reduction of mobility, increased incidence of age-specific medical conditions (diseases of the circulatory system, bones, and internal organs) that limit the physical effort that an elderly person is able to make. From the psychological viewpoint, an individual loses its reference points, the feeling of loneliness or worthlessness occurs, interactions with others are limited. One effect of the transition from working life to retirement is the reduction in revenue, which causes an imbalance in the daily living of the elderly. The issue of old age has become an important issue on the public agenda in recent years. The data provided by the Romanian National Institute of Statistics (NIS) supports this view, being based on life expectancy in Romania, in conjunction with the age structure of the population. A phenomenon of population ageing has emerged; for the first time in recent history the number of retired people is higher than the number of young people (The National Council of the Elderly, 2014). The ageing of the population, combined with increasing life expectancy can also be seen as a positive outcome of the modernisation of a society or of the integration of scientific discoveries in medicine; however, we must also analyse the living standards of these people. The purpose of this article is to address the issue of old age based on the transformations affecting the life of the elderly, the aspects relating to the quality of life and access to social and healthcare services, and leisure.