Successful aging in community dwelling elderly (PENSA): design, measures and preliminary data

• Autor(a) principal: Cupertino,Ana Paula Fabrino Bretas
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Batistoni,Samila Sathler Tavares
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ggaging.com/details/306
• topic: Successful aging, physical health, social support, aged people.

<p><b>OBJECTIVES:</b> The purpose of this paper is to present the methodological procedures of a community-based study designed to examine correlates of successful aging.<br> <b>METHODS:</b> There were identified 1.166 participants with a door-to-door methodology, in areas with a high concentration of older adults from Juiz de Fora, Brazil. After identifying a residence with at least one older adult (n = 1.686 among 7.089 residences), we presented the study, the participant signed the consent form, and we scheduled a home interview.<br> <b>RESULTS:</b> The age alternated (n = 956) from 60 to 103 (M = 72.3 ± 8.21), 72% were female; 19% earned &lt; 1 to 2 minimum wages and 28% earned more than eight minimum wages; the mean years of school attendance was 6.5 ± 4.5. Women and the oldest had school level, ocupation and salary lower than men and the youngest olds did. Women had more comorbidities. Hypertension prevalence was 51%; 49,68% had one to three illnesses and 40.48% had four or more; 62,3% used more than 2 medications; 80.4% had high scores in self-related health, and 87.4% had high scores in perceived social support. There were significant gender differences for health variables in the expected direction, while such differences were not consistently significant across age groups.<br> <b>CONCLUSION:</b> The methodology was useful to identify older adults in a short period of time. Future studies should follow this cohort overtime. The study had a bias toward a healthier and more educated group; nonetheless, the results are consistent with other community-based national studies with older populations.</p>