Systematic review on predominant beliefs towards the elderly (2018-2022)

Abstract

In recent years, a global phenomenon has been evidenced in the world population, regarding the increase in the number of older people, with Chile being one of the largest representatives of accelerated aging in Latin America. Along with this, prejudices towards the elderly have emerged in the environment that will be shown in the development of the theoretical review. We will add to this, the antecedent of an invisible concept until very recently in the culture of our country, known for “ageism”, but very present, in recent decades on the European continent.
The objective of our work is to know the perception of society about the elderly and the prejudices that have been built in the last four years around them. A systematic review will be carried out following the prism norm, of the state of the art in the last four years, to know the main findings and glimpse the main challenges facing this emerging social phenomenon at a global and local level, whose consequences are of enormous interest, not only for the approach and intervention towards the elderly, but also for the development of public policies in our country, as an example “Comprehensive Policy for Positive Aging 2012-2025”, focused on creating a favorable environment that improves the quality of life, autonomy and independence of the elderly (National Service for the Elderly [SENAMA], cited by Leiva, et al., 2020).
The most present prejudices are expressed by authors such as Horton, Bajer and Deakin, corresponding to the loss of health, loneliness, dependency and physical and mental deterioration (Horton et al.; Ory et al., cited in Velasco et al., 2020), in this sense, most of the reviewed studies agree that negative constructions are the most prevalent in society.
The most relevant conclusions suggest that old age is generally perceived as a period of emptiness, without value, in which there is uselessness, without grounds to justify it, so it is very necessary to install this debate to overthrow harmful cognitions towards our elders.