Mental health profile of the elderly community: a cross-sectional study

it was a descriptive quantitative study, conducted with 159 elderly through the scales Geriatric Depression, Resilience, Social Support, Life Satisfaction, and Positive and Negative Affects, Mini-Mental State Examination, Stressful Events Inventory and Brazil Old Age Shedule.

Results:

females, young and literate elderly predominated. Most were satisfied with life, 52.2% without depressive symptoms, 68.6% without cognitive impairment, 67.9% high resilience and 95.8% high social support, but 62% of elderly with depressive symptoms showed cognitive deficit. Negative correlation was identified between depression and cognitive impairment, resilience, social support and life satisfaction.

Conclusion:

assessment of these indicators identifies triggers of psychological distress, assisting the nursing staff in the development of preventive and care actions.

Descriptors:
Aged; Nursing; Mental Health; Primary Health Care; Public Health

Variables	Depressive symptoms		Mental state		Resilience		Social support
Variables	C n (%)	S n (%)	C n (%)	S n (%)	B n (%)	A n (%)	B n (%)	A n (%)
Gender
Male	15(40.5)	22(59.5)	11(29.7)	26(70.3)	14(37.8)	23(62.2)	1(2.7)	36(97.3)
Female	61(50.0)	61(50.0)	39(32.0)	83(68.0)	37(30.3)	85(69.7)	4(3.3)	116(96.7)
p value^* * Pearson's Chi-Square Test;	0.313		0.797		0.391		0.849^ Fisher's Exact Test C: with; S: without; B: low; A: high; Alone: widowed, separated or never married; Accompanied: married or living together.
Age
60-70	58(68.2)	27(31.8)	42(49.4)	43(50.6)	26(30.6)	59(69.4)	2(2.4)	82(97.6)
70-80	34(73.9)	12(26.1)	20(43.5)	2(56.5)	14(30.4)	32(69.6)	2(4.4)	43(95.6)
Above 80	16(59.3)	11(40.7)	13(48.1)	14(51.9)	10(37.0)	17(63.0)	1(3.7)	26(96.3)
p value^* * Pearson's Chi-Square Test;	0.430		0.808		0.803		0.807^ Fisher's Exact Test C: with; S: without; B: low; A: high; Alone: widowed, separated or never married; Accompanied: married or living together.
Marital status
Accompanied	8(14.8)	46(85.2)	22(40.7)	32(59.3)	2(3.8)	51(96.2)	14(25.9)	40(74.1)
Alone	42(40.0)	63(40.0)	54(51.4)	5(48.6)	3(2.9)	101(97.1)	37(35.2)	68(64.8)
p value^* * Pearson's Chi-Square Test;	0.001		0.201		0.764^ Fisher's Exact Test C: with; S: without; B: low; A: high; Alone: widowed, separated or never married; Accompanied: married or living together.		0.234
Literate
Yes	30(28.3)	76(71.7)	50(47.2)	56(52.8)	33(31.1)	73(68.9)	4(3.8)	101(96.2)
No	20(37.7)	33(62.3)	26(49.1)	27(50.9)	18(34.0)	35(66.0)	1(1.9)	51(98.1)
p value^* * Pearson's Chi-Square Test;	0.227		0.822		0.719		0.526^ Fisher's Exact Test C: with; S: without; B: low; A: high; Alone: widowed, separated or never married; Accompanied: married or living together.
Currently working
Yes	8(29.6)	19(70.4)	(29.6)	1(70.4)	6(22.2)	21(77.8)	0(0.0)	27(100)
No	40(31.7)	86(68.3)	63(50.0)	63(50.0)	42(33.3)	84(66.7)	5(4.0)	146(96.0)
p value^* * Pearson's Chi-Square Test;	0.830		0.054		0.259		0.289^ Fisher's Exact Test C: with; S: without; B: low; A: high; Alone: widowed, separated or never married; Accompanied: married or living together.
Income
≤ 1 MW	35(31.0)	78(69.0)	55(48.7)	58(51.3)	39(34.5)	74(65.5)	3(2.7)	109(97.3)
1 - 3 MW	11(28.9)	27(71.1)	17(44.7)	21(55.3)	(23.7)	29(76.3)	1(2.7)	36(97.3)
> 3 MW	4(50.0)	4(50.0)	4(50.0)	4(50.0)	3(37.5)	5(62.5)	1(12.5)	7(87.5)
p value^* * Pearson's Chi-Square Test;	0.497		0.908		0.439		0.305^ Fisher's Exact Test C: with; S: without; B: low; A: high; Alone: widowed, separated or never married; Accompanied: married or living together.
Housing arrengement
Alone	12(54.5)	10(45.5)	13(59.1)	9(40.9)	9(40.9)	13(59.1)	2(9.5)	19(90.5)
1-4	32(28.6)	80(71.4)	51(45.5)	61(54.5)	35(31.3)	77(68.8)	3(2.7)	108(97.3)
5-8	6(24.0)	19(76.0)	1248.0)	13(52.0)	7(28.0)	18(72.0)	0(0.0)	25(100)
p value^* * Pearson's Chi-Square Test;	0.038		0.508		0.602		0.162^ Fisher's Exact Test C: with; S: without; B: low; A: high; Alone: widowed, separated or never married; Accompanied: married or living together.

Variables	Female M (SD)	Male M (SD)
Life satisfaction	25.82 (6.92)	25.08 (7.83)
Positive affects	22.24 (6.51)	22.08 (6.84)
Negative affects	14.15 (6.37)	12.78 (5.82)

Stressful events	n	%
Death of a friend	102	64.2
Death of a close relative	86	53.8
Wife got sick	64	35.4
The elderly himself became ill	90	54.6
Take care of sick wife	44	22.3
Loss of purchasing power	57	35.4
Decreased activities you enjoyed	89	55.7

Variables	Mental state
Variables	Without cognitive deficit n (%)	With cognitive deficit n (%)	p value^* * Pearson's Chi-Square Test.
Depressive symptoms
With symptoms	45 (41.3)	31 (62.0)	0.015
Without symptoms	64 (58.7)	19 (38.0)
Social support
Ow support	3 (2.8)	2 (4.1)	0.666
High support	105 (97.2)	47 (95.9)
Resilience
Low resilience	29 (26.6)	22 (44.0)	0.029
High resilience	80 (73.4)	28 (56.0)

Variables	GDS total score
Variables	Correlation coefficient	p value^* * Pearson's Correlation Test; GDS: Geriatric Depression Scale; MMSE: Mini-Mental State Examination; LSS: Life Satisfaction Scale.
MMSE total score	-0.266	0.001
Total Resilience Scale score	-0.326	0.000
Total Social Support Scale score	-0.225	0.005
LSS total score	-0.519	0.000

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E-mail: reben@abennacional.org.br

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[1] Corresponding Author: Rafaella Queiroga Souto E-mail: rafaellaqueiroga7@gmail.com