Abstract

It is believed that the increase in life expectancy in the last decades has led to a change in the global age profile. The magnitude of people aged 60 and over is increasingly growing, compared to any other age group in the world [1]. However, the expectancy for the future is very different, because it is expected that, in 40 years, 22% of the total population will be at least 60 years old, expanding from 800 million to 2 billion people. In Brazil [2], there are approximately 20 million people aged 60 or over, which represents about 10% of the entire population, with an estimation of 32 million elderly people in 2025 [3]. In the context of sexuality, researchers have indicated that elderly people remain sexually active, even after 80 years old. However, unsafe sexual practices contribute to a greater vulnerability of this population to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), such as syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea [2].