Autopercepção positiva de saúde entre idosos jovens e longevos e fatores associados

Abstract

The demographic transition in Brazil causes changes in the epidemiological, economic and social characteristics of the country. Aging increases vulnerability to disease and the demand for care, with an impact on the health system. The objective of this study was to analyze the positive self-perception of health of young and longevous elderly people assisted by the teams of the Family Health Strategy in Montes Claros - MG. This is a cross-sectional and analytical research, conducted with the elderly registered in teams that function as poles of the Residence in Family and Community Medicine in the city. At the time, there were 138 teams of which one third belonged to the poles. Probabilistic sampling was adopted by conglomerate in two stages, with selection of 4 teams for collection. All elders registered for evaluation by home interviews, by trained evaluators, using the BOMFAQ (Brazilian Older Americans Resources and Services Multidimensional Function Assessment Questionnaire) instrument were included. In case of refusal, another individual was drawn in substitution. Data on gender, age, education, income, self-perception of health, functional capacity, cognitive evaluation, use of medications or polypharmacy, and polypathologies were compiled. The description and analysis of the data included the strata of young and longevous elderly. The data were tabulated using IBM SPSS® software version 20.0 and submitted to Poisson regression analysis. Seventeen hundred and fifty elderly people participated in this study, 81.15% of them young and 18.85% longevous. Positive self-perception was reported in 70.8% of the elderly. Positive self-perception of health among the young elderly was associated with variables: higher education (PR=1.28; pvalue=0.001), better family income (PR=1.12; p-value=0.030), good vision (PR=1.13; pvalue=0.003), good chewing (PR=1.17; p-value=0.026), absence of insomnia (PR=1.12; pvalue<0.001), absence of polypathologies (PR=1.31; p-value<0.001), not being diabetic (PR=1.14; p-value=0.007), not having falls in the last year (PR=1.14; p-value=0.001) and performing regular physical activities (PR=1.11; p-value<0.001). Among the longevous elderly, there was an association with the variables having good chewing (PR=1.41; pvalue=0.013), preserved sleep (PR=1.42; p-value<0.001) and performing physical activities (PR=1.24; p-value=0.002). There was a high prevalence of positive self-perception of health among the elderly, related to different factors in each stratum studied. The diversity of variables related to health perception in age groups and the heterogeneity of biopsychosocial and economic characteristics within the elderly point to the need for longitudinal studies.