SUMMARY
Approximately 450,000 Gypsy people live in Slovakia, which is 8 % of the total population. Most of the Slovak Gypsies live in segregated enclaves in which the socio-economic and health status of the population is extremely poor. Compared to the majority population, the Gypsies are characterized by higher birth rates and higher mortality.
Within the European Union, life expectancy at birth for Gypsy men is 10.4 years shorter and for Gypsy women 10.2 years shorter than for the rest of population.
The low number of Gypsy seniors is the cause of an extremely large difference in demographic indices. Seniors have great respect in the traditional Gypsy community and family, which is one of the reasons why the Gypsy usually provide care for the elderly in their ethnic group and make little use of care in residential social institutions.
The health status of the Gypsies is significantly worse compared to the majority population. The typical lifestyle of the Gypsy population can be described as unhealthy. One of the reasons for their poorer health is the insufficient use of health services, despite their general availability. Among the causes of inequalities in the health status between the excluded Gypsies and the majority population are also the negative social attitudes of the health professionals towards the Gypsy. The Gypsies belonged and belong to the risk group in terms of the incidence of tuberculosis (TB). Marginalized Gypsy communities also form a specific risk group in the prevention and protection of the population against the spread of coronavirus.
Key words: Gypsies, Gypsy seniors, health status, communication, infectious diseases.
Lek Obz, 2021, 70 (4): 132-137
Ivan BARTOŠOVIČ 1, Katarína ZRUBÁKOVÁ 2, Peter MIKUS 3
1 Vysoká škola zdravotníctva a sociálnej práce sv. Alžbety, Bratislava
2 Fakulta zdravotníctva, Katolícka univerzita, Ružomberok
3 Lekárske fakulta, Slovenská zdravotnícka univerzita, Bratislava
Cite:
BARTOŠOVIČ I., ZRUBÁKOVÁ K., MIKUS P.: Gypsy seniors. Lek Obz, 2021, 70 (4): 132-137
