Analysis of the Consumption Patterns in Families with and without Elderly Members between 1987 and 2009 in the Metropolitan Regions of Brazil

The fast growth of the Brazilian elderly population is bringing new challenges for the local economy. In order to allow governments and markets to be prepared for this new growing demand, the objective of this paper is to analyze the differences in consumption patterns between families that are headed by the elderly and those that are not using microdata level from Brazilian household budget surveys for the years 1987/88, 1995/96, 2002/03, and 2008/09. Among the main results, there have been changes in the past 20 years for some consumer products and not for others for both family structures. We also find that families headed by the elderly spend more on pharmaceutics and health services than those headed by non-elderly. It was also observed that the people aged 60–70 presented a profile of consumer behavior that is quite similar to non-elderly individuals. This important finding suggests an improvement in recent health and changes in consumption habits for this age group, which is usually seen in developing countries such as Brazil as a demographic description by physical and psychological limitations.