Quality of Life, Family Support, and Comorbidities in Institutionalized Elders With and Without Symptoms of Depression

• Autor(a) principal: Araújo, Aurigena Antunes de
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Barbosa, Rosa Angélica Silveira Rebouças, Menezes, Marília Stefani Souza de, Medeiros, Ingrid Iana Fernandes de, Araújo Jr., Raimundo Fernandes de, Medeiros, Caroline Addison Carvalho Xavier de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/25428; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-015-9386-y
• topic: Depression; Institutionalized elderly; Quality of life

The institutionalization of elders can decrease the health status and quality of life in this population. The aim of this study was to analyze the socio-demographic, quality of life, family support, and comorbidities variables in institutionalized elders with and without symptoms of depression. This was a cross-sectional study in institutions for long permanence for the elderly in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Two institutionalized elderly groups were compared (138 elders: 69 with and 69 without depressive symptoms). The instruments used were: mini-mental state examination, geriatric depression scale in the reduced version, socio-demographic questionnaire, quality of life (World Health Organization Quality of Life abbreviated-WHOQOL-bref), and inventory of perception of family support. Elders with depressive symptoms had inferior quality of life than those without depressive symptoms. Other factors that negatively influenced the quality of life in this population include: low economic conditions, occurrence of comorbidities, and deficient family assistance. These results have important implications in the decision making process with regard to strategies for improving the health status of institutionalized elders.