Daily-task difficulties linked to younger ages in Brazil
A cross-sectional comparison found links between age and daily-task difficulties a decade earlier in Brazil than in Europe.
25,978 participants, cohort study
Limit: Daily-task outcomes were self-reported
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of 4,825 community-dwelling adults aged 50 and older from Brazil and 25,978 from SHARE, a survey covering Europe and Israel. They used Brazilian data from 2019–2021 and SHARE data from 2021–2022.
Participants reported difficulty with basic self-care, such as bathing, and more complex tasks, such as shopping. Age was associated with difficulty in complex tasks from the 60–69 age group in Brazil, compared with 70–79 in the European cohort. The researchers also compared physical, mental and sensory health measures. Depression was more strongly associated with daily-task difficulties in Europe. Poor self-rated health was more strongly associated with basic self-care difficulties in Brazil. The analyses accounted for age and other measured characteristics.
Why it matters
Difficulties with self-care and everyday tasks bear on independence in older age. The authors called for care strategies tailored to each society’s circumstances to promote equitable healthy aging.
Caveats
This cross-sectional analysis cannot establish when individuals began to decline or whether the associated health factors caused their difficulties. Daily-task outcomes were self-reported, and the findings concern community-dwelling adults aged 50 and older.
The paper
Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya; Universidade Nove de Julho
PLOS One, Aug 5, 2026, Open access
