Sintomas depressivos e fatores associados entre idosos residentes em uma comunidade no Norte de Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

lder individuals present chronic health problems, demanding specific care. The majority of them will look after health attendance in their communities; therefore the Family Health Strategy (FHS) teams must be prepared to resolve their demands. Depressive symptoms are more common among elders comparatively to other age groups, and are associated to worse health prognosis and loss of capability to do Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). This study has the objective to verify the prevalence of depressive symptoms of an elder population dwelling in a community in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and evaluate the association of them with biopsychosocial aspects and functional capacity. This is a transversal, observational, population-based study. All of the elders living in the range area of a FHS unit, and the interviews were made in their dwellings. An adaptation of the Brazil Old Age Schedule (BOAS) questionnaire was used to collect the biopsychosocial data. The abbreviated Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) was used to evaluate depressive symptoms. The Katz Index was used to evaluate the Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL); the Pfeffer Index to evaluate Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). The associations were verified by submitting data to bivariate and multivariate analysis. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was of 20.9%. Depressive symptoms were significative associated with difficulty to sleep (PR=2.04; p=0.002) and dependence for IADL (PR=3.22; p<0.001). There is a high prevalence of depressive symptoms among elders in the community, being more frequent among elders with difficulty to sleep and functional dependence for IADL.