Depression hits 40 percent of elderly people in Algeria

More than 60 percent of people in old age home think about killing themselves because of depression, powerlessness and disappointment, said chief of the National Association for Assisted Elderly people Ihssan.

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• Souad Chikhi stressed the necessity of launching awareness-raising campaigns to help the old people in learning how to write and read. “They would be able of reading the Quran instead of playing domino and staying on the streets.”
• Doctor Kamel Kaderi said chronical diseases and psychological pressures are behind the death of 80 percent of elderly people in Algeria.
• Figures show that the number of old people in Algeria will reach 20 percent in 2030. A total of 83 percent of them are illiterate and 27 percent suffer from various chronic diseases.
• Diabetes threatens 12 percent of them while 24 percent suffer from rheumatism, 100,000 from sight troubles and 160,000 from malnutrition.