Schooling and its effects on literacy of elderly over 65 years

OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed the conditions of literacy of people aged at least 65, comparing these conditions among the elderly whose education level was compatible with higher education and those who do not. METHODS: We used a questionnaire and a reading test containing texts of various genres for 72 elderly over 65 years, living in the city of Curitiba-PR. The questionnaire included age, educational level and current practices in reading and writing. In the reading test, subjects were asked to find explicit and implicit information in four texts: a fable, a poster, a ticket and a newspaper. Data were categorized and analyzed using statistical analysis software Sphinx(r), and like inferential statistics were applied the significance tests of Fisher and chi-square. RESULTS: The study subjects had easy access to various reading materials, but the link to these materials was still lacking. Regardless of the level of education it was found the restricted use of practices related to written language, as both the elderly who have higher education, and those who do not have such training showed significant difficulties to extract information from simple texts. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop intervention activities that can work with written language, so that subjects in aging process can effectively insert themselves into the current society focused in the writing.