Health self-perception and profile of an elderly companionship group at regional norte in BH/MG

• Autor(a) principal: Marra,Taís de Almeida
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Jacob,Pollyanna Rinco Maluf, Zivianni,Izabella Lana, Dora,Thaísa Lins Vieira, Guedes,Rita de Cássia, Lustosa,Lygia Paccini
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ggaging.com/details/124
• topic: Frail elderly, health profile, demographic aging.

<p><b>OBJECTIVE:</b> The aim of this study was to evaluate health self-perception (HSP) and the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics in a group of elderly people attending activity groups at Regional Norte in the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, and to verify the correlation with the frailty phenotype.<br> <b>METHODS:</b> Elderly people (65 years old or more) attending the groups, with no distinction of race, gender or social class. Those with dependent gait, visual, hearing or phonatory deficits, neurological diseases, pain, cognitive dysfunctions (MMSE) were excluded. The sociodemographic and clinical variables and HSP were informed during the interview. The frailty phenotype was identified with the presence of: weight loss; slow walking speed; low physical activity; low grip strength, and exhaustion. The statistical analysis was done by descriptive and frequencies analyses, and the association was made with chi-square test (&#945; = 5%).<br> <b>RESULTS:</b> Seventeen hundred elderly people participated (70 ± 7.2 years old). The characteristics were: women (86.3%); widows (48.7%); low educational level (84.0%); low income (91.4%), sedentary (58.9%), with associated chronic diseases (92.0%), polipharmacy (23.0%) and over weight (68.0%). Most of participants classified their own health as "good/ very good" (58.1%). Pre-frail individuals were 51.2%, 41.8% were not frail and 6.8% were frail. The frailty phenotype was associated with HSP (p = 0.01) and irregularity of physical activity (p = 0.01). Other associations were not observed (p &gt;0.05).<br> <b>CONCLUSION:</b> Most of the participants of the activity groups of Regional Norte in BH/MG were women, widows, sedentary, overweight, not old, with low educational level and incomes, and with high arterial blood pressure. The pre-frail individuals were most prevalent, with most of them showing good health self-perception.</p>