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 peoplelinked to the ESF. Methods: this is an analytical, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, carried out in two communities ascribed to the Family Health Strategy (ESF) of Rio Grande do Norte, 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 levelwere 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 ρ-value 0.032), emotional health presented average 82.0 (ρ-value 0.040) and physical size (Average 51.4 and ρ-value 0.042). Among the aspects of health and QOL there was a statistical significance between the variable "pain in the last week", with the absence of pain associated with functional capacity (Average 76.7 and ρ-value 0.013) and emotional health (Average 96.