Abstract
Introduction : Healthy aging and quality of life has become a major desire of contemporary society. Understanding the profile of this population will allow the creation of more appropriate policies and actions for the promotion of health and quality of life. Objective : To map aspects related to health and quality of life as perceived by elderly residents of the city of Canindé, in the central sertão region of the state of Ceará. Method : A quantitative, cross-sectional, household-based study was performed. From a population of 5,214 elderly persons, proportional stratified sampling resulted in a sample of 372 individuals. A characterization questionnaire addressing sociodemographic characteristics and health status and the abbreviated version of WHOQOL were used. SPSS version 16.0 was used for descriptive and inferential statistics, adopting a significance level of 5%. Results : Most elderly individuals were female, married, brown skinned, aged 60 to 69 years old, with an incomplete primary education and an income of up to one minimum wage. Most of the elderly persons had attended 1-3 consultations/admissions in the last 12 months, and reported a high prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, anxiety and cardiovascular diseases, despite describing their health and quality of life as "good". In terms of quality of life, the psychological domain had the highest, and the environmental domain had the lowest mean score. Conclusions : The prevalent diseases/comorbidities belonged to the chronic non-communicable diseases group. The environmental domain negatively influenced overall quality of life, indicating the importance of environments that provide health promotion and quality of life for elderly people from rural regions.
Highlights
Healthy aging and quality of life has become a major desire of contemporary society
The major diseases or comorbidities reported by the elderly individuals studied, were, in order of prevalence: hypertension (46.2%), followed by diabetes (18.0%), osteoporosis (12.4%), anxiety (11.8%) and cardiovascular disease (10.2%)
The present study revealed a predominance of specific population characteristics that were extremely similar to another study,[16] performed with 385 elderly persons in the urban area of Quixadá, a town located in the central region of the state of Ceará, which described a predominance of women (64.3%), participants aged between 60 and 69 years (41.0%), who were married (56.0%), had an incomplete primary level education (54.4%), did not perform paid work (84.1%) and had an income of up to one minimum salary (55.1%)
Summary
Healthy aging and quality of life has become a major desire of contemporary society. Understanding the profile of this population will allow the creation of more appropriate policies and actions for the promotion of health and quality of life. While acknowledging that the development of habits and lifestyles are related in complex ways to social restraints and determinants of health, the behavioral risk factors common to the development of CNCDs are physical inactivity, an unhealthy diet, smoking and alcohol abuse.[2,3] In this sense, healthy aging is a common desire for modern society. According to Deponti & Acosta,[4] for a better understanding of the relationship between aging and health, a multidimensional approach should be adopted, considering biological, physical, psychological, economic and social factors For these authors, it is important to understand the perception of the elderly individuals themselves about such factors, as they are the main actors in this process
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