Brazil is experiencing among the world’s fastest demographic aging worldwide. This demographic transition is occurring in a context of few resources and great social inequalities. The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil) is a nationally representative study of 9,412 people aged 50 years or older, residing in 70 municipalities across the 5 Brazilian regions. ELSI-Brazil allows investigations of the aging process, its health, psychosocial and economic determinants, and societal consequences. The baseline examination (2015–2016) included detailed household and individual interviews and physical measurements (blood pressure, anthropometry, grip strength, and timed walk and balance tests). Blood tests and sample storage were performed in a subsample of study participants. Subsequent waves are planned for every 3 years. The study adopts a conceptual framework common to other large-scale longitudinal studies of aging in the world, such as the Health and Retirement Study, allowing cross-national comparisons. The goal of ELSI-Brazil is not only to build an understanding of aging in a large, Western, middle-income country in a rapid demographic transition but also to provide scientific data to support and study policy changes that may affect older adults. We describe the methodology of the study and some descriptive results of the baseline survey.

A study was designed to identify conditions of frailty in relation to social, demographic, health, cognitive, functional, and psychosocial variables in community-dwelling elderly. The article presents the methodology and preliminary data. A total of 3,478 elderly (65 years and older) were selected from probabilistic samples of seven Brazilian cities chosen by convenience and participated in a data collection session in a community setting. The following characteristics predominated: women (67.7%), married (48%) or widowed (36.4%), living with a son or daughter and family (52.6%), head of family (64.5%), and 1-4 years of schooling (49%); 28.8% were illiterate and 24.8% presented a cognitive deficit; 9.1% were frail, 51.8% pre-frail, and 39.1% non-frail. There were more frail individuals among women, those 80 years or older, the widowed, the illiterate, those who had never attended school, and those with cognitive deficit. In general, the social and demographic data corroborate Brazilian epidemiological studies, while those on frailty, cognitive status, and schooling corroborate the international literature.

OBJECTIVE:To obtain internal construct and criteria validity for the Center of Epidemiological Studies -Depression scale in elderly people. METHODS:The instrument was applied to 903 elderly living in a city in southeastern Brazil, between 2002 and 2003. Results were compared with the Brazilian version of the CES-D applied to a sub-sample of 446 participants. Internal consistency of the two scales was assessed using Cronbach's alpha measured for the items in their total and for the items of each factor obtained for the assessed instrument. To assess the construct validity, the 20 items underwent exploratory factorial analysis to discover their variation pattern and the variance explained according to each factor. RESULTS:The scale presented satisfactory index for internal validity (α=0.860), sensibility (74.6%), specifi city (73.6%), and for cutoff point >11. However, it presented a relatively high frequency of false positives compared to the GDS 33.8% vs. 15%. Exploratory factorial analysis of the instrument created factorial structure with three factors: negative affects, problems initiating behaviors, and positive affects. CONCLUSIONS:The instrument seemed to be psychometrically suitable when applied to older people. However, further cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, carried out in different contexts, may explain the effects of somatic and situational variables on the results of the instrument in older people.

A study was designed to identify conditions of frailty in relation to social, demographic, health, cognitive, functional, and psychosocial variables in community-dwelling elderly. The article presents the methodology and preliminary data. A total of 3,478 elderly (65 years and older) were selected from probabilistic samples of seven Brazilian cities chosen by convenience and participated in a data collection session in a community setting. The following characteristics predominated: women (67.7%), married (48%) or widowed (36.4%), living with a son or daughter and family (52.6%), head of family (64.5%), and 1-4 years of schooling (49%); 28.8% were illiterate and 24.8% presented a cognitive deficit; 9.1% were frail, 51.8% pre-frail, and 39.1% non-frail. There were more frail individuals among women, those 80 years or older, the widowed, the illiterate, those who had never attended school, and those with cognitive deficit. In general, the social and demographic data corroborate Brazilian epidemiological studies, while those on frailty, cognitive status, and schooling corroborate the international literature.

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