The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between the recent financial crisis and lifestyle health determinants among older adults living in the Mediterranean islands.
From 2005 to 2015, a population-based, multi-stage convenience sampling method was used to voluntarily enroll 2749 older adults from 20 Mediterranean islands and the rural area of the Mani peninsula. Lifestyle status was evaluated as the cumulative score of four components (range, 0 to 6), that is, smoking habits, diet quality (MedDietScore), depression status (Geriatric Depression Scale) and physical activity.
According to the results, older Mediterranean people enrolled in the study from 2009 onwards showed social isolation and increased smoking, were more prone to depressive symptoms, and adopted less healthy dietary habits, as compared to their counterparts participating earlier in the study, irrespective of age, gender, several clinical characteristics, or socioeconomic status of the participants .
Conclusively, in recent years it is obvious that less healthy behaviours are more commonly adopted and should be part of public health interventions in order to eliminate the effect of economic crisis.