Prevalência de dor crônica e sintomas depressivos associados a condições de saúde em idosos institucionalizados

Abstract

The process of population aging caused by the various structural and epidemiological changes, made the individuals become more long-lived. This longevity led to the creation of long-term institutions for the elderly, in order to accommodate this large number of elderly people. After this occurred the great incidence of chronic pain and of depressive symptoms were noticed, that these appeared individually or together, one being the cause or the consequence of the other. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of chronic pain and depressive symptoms in institutionalized elderly people and to associate them with other health conditions. It is a cross-sectional, population-based study involving elderly individuals aged 60 and over, of both sexes, living in Long-Term Care Institutions for the Elderly, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. were collected through an interview using a structured questionnaire containing sociodemographic variables, chronic pain, the Geriatric Depression Scale for symptoms suggestive of depression, the Mini-Mental Status Examination for cognitive evaluation, the Katz Index to evaluate the functionality, the SARC-F to obtain the results referring to sarcopenia, in addition to the questionnaires pertinent to the health self-assessment and the respective items to the fragility. The sample consisted of elderly people living in 14 ILPI, mostly white women, with education level up to eight years of study, without the presence of a partner. Regarding chronic pain, its prevalence was not statistically significant in the studied sample; however, in the association of chronic pain with other variables, a significant relationship with rheumatism, low back pain, polypharmacy, and basic daily life activities was evidenced. The association of depressive symptoms and self-perception of health identified that the majority considered their health as good and 44% presented signs suggestive of depression and that in the association of symptoms suggestive of depression and self-perception of health the analysis was statistically significant domains: health assessment at the present time, health assessment compared to other people of the same age and health assessment compared a year ago. At the end of the study, it was concluded that the prevalence of chronic pain occurred in the smallest part of the sample and was not considered statistically significant. However, when related to factors associated with rheumatism, low back pain, polypharmacy and functional capacity, the results werestatistically significant. It was also concluded that when comparing the self-perception of health with the presence of depressive symptoms, it was possible to affirm that most of the elderly with depression referred to perceive their health as very bad, bad and regular, but in the total sample, very good and good.