Abstract
Objectives
To verify the prevalence of psychic suffering in an old population in the community and analyze its correlation with age, years of education, socioeconomic level, gender, reported morbidity, self-perceived health, visual self-perception, self-perception of hearing, and geriatric syndromes (frailty, fear of falling, functional capacity, and falls).
Method
A cross-sectional study with 315 non-institutionalized old people living in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 2015. Data were collected through a household survey, and the psychic suffering can be observed in that old population with the use of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4). The Pearson’s chi-square test (χ²) was used to verify the association between the outcome variable and the explanatory variables. The level of significance adopted in the study was 5%.
Results
The prevalence of psychic suffering among the old people was 41.8% (95% CI 36.5–47.4%). There was an association between the PHQ-4 and gender (ρ=0.001), reported morbidity (ρ=0.020), self-perceived health (ρ <0.001), visual self-perception (ρ=0.001), self-perception of hearing (ρ=0.034), functional capacity (ρ=0.003), and fragility (ρ=0.000).
Conclusions
psychic suffering is a common condition among old people. Knowledge of the factors associated with this event can contribute to a health care model that encourages active and healthy aging.
Keywords
Aging; Health of the Elderly; Mental Health; Stress Psychological; Cross-Sectional Studies