How our population is aging. Factors associated with the functional capacity of older adults in Bucaramanga-Colombia: The ARENA Study

Abstract

Introduction. As a demographic aging result, societies have experienced effects such as the increase of functional limitations in older adults and high demand for social and health care. The objective is to analyze factors associated with the functional level of daily life activities and socio-family risk factors of older adults in an urban population in Bucaramanga-Colombia. Methodology. Analytical cross-sectional secondary data study. 196 older adults were studied after excluding individuals with incomplete records. The Barthel and the Lawton Index were used for functional status, and Socio-Family Assessment Scale for social risk. The STATA software was used for doing the logistic regression that helped to determine association between variables. Results. Above half of older adults presented functional limitations when performing daily life activities (59.69%). The prevalence of a socio-family risk was 47.45%. Functional limitation was associated with age, cognitive dysfunction and falls risk. Discussion. The study demonstrated lower scores in the Barthel Index and high scores in risk and social problematic situations compared to other studies. Moreover, results support that high blood pressure is a risk factor for functional limitations situations. Conclusion. It is important to continue interventions about health status in older people to identify risk factors, such as cognitive dysfunction, high Falls risk and chronic diseases control.