IntroductionResearch has shown the importance of social support on mental health, however, this investigation has not been done in elder population.Objective/aimsOur aim is to study the relationship between perceived social support, satisfaction with life, anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms.MethodsWe collected a sample of 46 institutionalized elderly aged between 65 and 95 years old. We used the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) to assess anxious and depressive symptoms. To assess social support we used the Older Americans Resources and Services Program (OARS), which evaluated the social resources, and to assess the life satisfaction we used the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS).ResultsWe found that 91.3% of subjects were illiterate or with low education and only 4 (8.7%) had studied beyond the fourth grade. The elders showed an high average of anxiety and depression symptoms, and dissatisfaction with life. Regarding the perception of social support, the elderly essentially reveal high dissatisfaction with the extent of contact with others and the availability of help. We also found that perceived social support is related with GAI, GDS, and SWLS.ConclusionIntervention strategies should involve the integration of elder population in social life.

Verbal fluency (VF) involves complex processes and has been a good marker of cognitive decline. However, the literature is inconsistent concerning to witch factors are associated with VF. Our aims are to analyze the relationship between both phonemic verbal fluency (PVF) and semantic verbal fluency (SVF) and sociodemographic and psychopathological variables, and explore which emerge as significant predictors. A subsample of 429 of healthy institutionalized elderly from the Aging Trajectories at Coimbra Council Project were surveyed (60 to 100 years; mean age = 80.38 ± 7.24), the majority was women (76.9%), without a partner (82.2%), without education or with less than four years of education (85.7%), manual occupation (90.1%), and attending day care centers. We evaluated VF phonetically (letters P, M, R) and semantically (animals and food), anxiety symptoms through the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI), depressive symptoms through Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and feelings of loneliness through Loneliness Scale (UCLA). PVF was significantly related with education, occupation, GAI, and GDS. SVF was significantly associated with age, education, occupation, and GDS. Furthermore, SVF scores were worse in elderly men and in those living in night care center, and PVF scores were lower in those with high levels of anxiety symptomatology. In logistic regression analysis none of the variables accounted for the variance in PVF. The only predictor of SVF was sex. In conclusion, this study allowed us to elucidate the only key factor underlying verbal fluency. Being a man may affect SVF performance in institutionalized elderly.

IntroductionExecutive functions (EF) are associated to frontal lobes and cognitive decline (CD) with worse results on EF tests.Objectives/aimsAnalyze if the Frontal Assessment Battery/FAB assessing EF discriminates elders with CD (vs. with no CD; Montreal Cognitive Assessment/MoCA), and if the results obtained with the Rey Osterreith Complex Figure Test/ROCF (copy's quality, immediate, and delayed memory) are associated with the CD presence/absence. Moreover, we wanted to assess if copy's quality and 3 minutes memory test are associated with FAB results, since these two tests are supposedly associated with EF and with frontal lobes assessed by the FAB, contrarily to the 20 minutes memory (supposedly related to the temporal area).Methodology556 institutionalized elders (age: M ± SD =80.2 ± 5.23; range=60-100) filled in voluntarily a sociodemographic questionnaire, ROCF, MoCA and FAB.ResultsFAB and all ROCF tests were associated with the absence/presence of CD. Regarding variables stratified by age and education, FAB was associated with immediate memory but not with copy's quality nor with delayed memory. With no stratified ROCF and FAB, correlations confirmed the previous associations, but also between FAB and copy's quality.ConclusionsResults follow the literature regarding the association between immediate memory and EF (associated to frontal lobes), in contrast to the long-term memory which is associated with the temporal area and that was not associated with FAB. Results concerning copy's quality (ROCF) are not consensual.

Background: Psychopathological symptoms are very common among university students from different cultures, but the socio-demographic correlates that have been found are different depending on the studies. The correlates of such symptoms among Portuguese students have not been studied thoroughly, besides the methodological issues that arise in this type of studies, in the sense that has not been described who does the psychological evaluations.Aims: The main objective was to verify if there is a difference on psychopathological symptoms between two groups questioned by two different examiners, controlling for the potential role of social desirability, and other potential covariates. Additionally, we want to assess the level of psychopathology and its socio-demographic correlates. Methods: 185 Coimbra's university students completed the Brief Symptom Inventory/BSI and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. In one group the examiner was of the same age and academic status as the students, while in the other group the examiner was older and a teacher. We studied the psychopathological correlates with Pearson, point-biserial correlations, and qui-square analyses, and we controlled the potential role of covariates through Quade non-parametric ANCOVAs. Results: The level of distress was lower in comparison with other investigations. Women had higher level of distress and more symptoms of somatization, anxiety, phobic anxiety, obsessive-compulsion, and depression. The students that live a higher distance from home had more anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The group assessed by the younger examiner scored higher in distress and in some BSI factors, and had lower levels on social desirability. Conclusions: Sex and distance from home seem important factors for university students' mental health. However, the examiner does have an influence in the evaluation, probably because of social desirability, suggesting that the examiner's characteristics should be given in investigations involving university students.

Introduction: When cognitive decline (CD) is present, attention is one of the impaired mental functions. CD is also associated with anxious/depressive symptoms and with some demographic variables, particularly, age.