Introduction:

The promotion of research at the university level offers multiple benefits to students and is indicative of educational quality of universities.

Objective:

To describe the characteristics of research about aging carried out by university students in Peru.

Methods:

Descriptive study of the diploma papers and postgraduate theses about aging presented in Peru between 1980 and 2013. The search was carried out by keywords in the databases in the of country’s universities and in electronic databases both national and from Latin American, the selection being based on compliance with the research methodological process.

Results:

We identified 500 works, most of which were diploma papers (74.4 %) and on the topic of the geriatric field (78 %). The social issue was the most studied (12.8 %) in the gerontological field. The surgical topic was the most studied (8.1 %) in the geriatric field. The majority of the works were descriptive (92 %), cross-sectional (69.6 %) and associated with the geriatric field (78 %), both in the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. During the period under study, the proportion of papers and theses research carried out shows a progressive increase, with a significant increase in the number of analytical and prospective studies.

Conclusion:

Research developed by university students about aging in Peru is mainly cross-sectional and associated with to the geriatric field. In the period studied, it shows a significant increase.

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