Abstract

With the aging of the population and the estimation of the increase of the elderly population in the world, strategies and studies are needed to improve the quality of life and well-being, increasing the average life expectancy, thus preventing or delaying the process aging. In research, the understanding of associated factors such as: gradual biological changes of aging, genetic conditions, gender, age, ethnicity, life-long habits, environment, culture, geography and the most frequent causes of death are crucial. important to support the implementation of strategic treatments and morbidity care. This work is an integrative review whose objective is to identify the major causes of death in the elderly. The following databases were searched: BVS, CLINICAL KEY and MEDLINE and used to search for the descriptors “cause of death in the elderly”. More than 25.000 references were found, of which 51 were included in the study, which met the following criteria: covering publications in Portuguese or English during the period between 2012 and 2018 in several countries. Among the results, there were the highest causes of death in the elderly by origin, being in sequence: cardiac, respiratory, cerebral, physical trauma, associated with aging, sepsis and cancer.

Keywords: Cause of death; Elderly; Mortality