A report released yesterday on centenarians — people who live to or beyond the age of 100 — showed that the proportion of women and men is about the same, and that infectious disease is their number one health risk.
The survey was conducted by National Taiwan University’s Department of Social Work professor Yang Pei-shan (楊培珊), the United Daily News Group and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, on 157 centenarians as of the end of last year.
The team said that the number of centenarians in Taiwan is growing fast, with about 3,000 people included in this year’s data — equating to approximately 13 people per 100,000.
The survey showed that the health of male centenarians was generally better than that of their female counterparts and was attributed to their more active lifestyles.
Yang said the survey also indicated that a person’s chances of living beyond 100 years might be influenced by genes.
She said the team discovered that among the respondents, about 40 percent of their fathers and 60 percent of their mothers lived to be older than 80 years, and about 90 percent of their siblings lived to be older than 90 years.
After analyzing the National Health Insurance records of 88 percent of the nation’s centenarians, Yang said the average number of hospital visits for centenarians is 14.7 times per year, fewer than the average 26.7 times per year for people older than 65 years.
However, their average number of emergency room visits is 1.3 times per year and on average they are hospitalized once per year, Yang said, adding that those figures are higher than the averages of people older than 65 years.
Chen Liang-kung (陳亮恭), director of the Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, said infectious diseases — such as pneumonia, urinary tract infection or sepsis — are the number one reason why centenarians are sent to an emergency room or hospitalized.
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