Author:

• Juliani Hainzenreder Cardoso - Cardoso JH - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - <episoares@terra.com.br>

Thematic Area:

Não Categorizado

Abstract:

The present cross-sectional study aimed to trace the epidemiological profile of the older individual belonging to a private healthcare plan as well as to verify their functional capacity, through the Barthel index, and associated factors. We included all associates of the healthcare plan, belonging to the age range over 60 years. For the purpose of data collecting, two self-answered questionnaires had been used: one about family socioeconomic factors and another related to health issues. Regarding the functional capacity among the 254 aged participants, four (1.6%) individuals presented total dependence, one (0.4%) was seriously dependent, one (0.4%) was moderately dependent, 29 (11.4%) were somewhat dependent, and 219 (86.2%) were classified as independent. Therefore, the variable was added in such way that 86.2% had been classified as independents and 13.8% (CI95%: 9.5 to 18.0) as dependents. The adjusted analysis showed that only age remained associated to the outcome. The results had shown that the individuals over 80 years old presented greater probability of functional incapacity than other individuals. In addition, it was pointed that in populations with improved socioeconomic conditions there is the possibility of survival bias.
Key words: aging health, demographic aging, cross-sectional studies, activities of daily living, functional status.

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