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       KUWAIT CITY, March 10: The Health Promotion Department, in coordination with the Elderly Committee in Primary Health Care Department, concluded an intensive training course on promoting the health of the elderly in Kuwait, as part of its periodic activities to raise the technical level and continuing education of the category of health education graduates working in the Ministry of Health in various locations. In this context, the Director of the Health Promotion Department Dr. Abeer Al-Bahwah explained that the number of elderly people over the age of 65 years in the country has reached 130,524, including 77,893 citizens, accounting for 60 percent, and 52,631 residents, accounting for 40 percent.

       This is according to the latest statistics of the Public Authority for Civil Information for the year 2023, which indicated that the Kuwaiti elderly constitute five percent of the total Kuwaiti population in the country. There is a noticeable increase in the number of elderly people over the age of 65 years around the world, due to the improvement of many health and social services as well as the decline in fertility rates. According to the World Population Prospects Report for 2019, the total percentage of the elderly has reached approximately nine percent, and this is expected to increase to 16 percent by the year 2050. It may reach 25 percent of the total population in some countries, in addition to the three-fold increase in the number of elderly people over the age of eighty.

       Dr. Al-Bahwa stressed the importance of educational courses and periodic activities to raise awareness about the health of the elderly and shed light on many health concepts and problems specific to this group. She said the course hosted several consultant doctors specialized in geriatrics, during which they talked about mental deficiency, how to diagnose and prevent it, and about recurrent falls among the elderly and its causes.

       By Marwa Al-Bahrawi

       Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff

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