Socio-demographic and Health Aspects Associated with the Quality of Life in the Elderly of the Family Health Strategy. An Analytical Study.

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the association between the socio-demographic and health aspects to the quality of life (QOL) of elderly people linked to the ESF. Methods: this is an analytical, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, carried out in two communities ascribed to the ESF of Rio Grande do, Brazil, between December 2015 and March 2016. The data collection instruments were: a socio-demographic and pain characteristics questionnaire; Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Medical Outcomes Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36 Brazilian version). A descriptive and inferential analysis with 5.0% significance level were performed. The study followed the ethical precepts of research. Results: In this age group studied, there is a significant association between younger elderly with the domains of functional capacity (Average 67.2 and Ï-value 0.032), emotional health (Average 82.0 and Ï-value 0.040) and physical size (Average 51.4 and Ï-value 0.042). Among the aspects of health and QOL there was a statistical significance between the variable “pain in the last weekâ€, with the absence of pain associated with functional capacity (Average 76.7 and Ï-value 0.013) and emotional health (Average 96.1 and Ï-value (0.019) These statistically significant differences occurred in the elderly of Santa Cruz. Conclusion: regarding the association between socio-demographic and health aspects and QOL of the elderly, there was a significant between different variables and domains, with a strong association of QOL with age, marital status, pain and medication use.