Aspectos socioeconômicos e demográficos: autonomia do idoso em gerir sua própria vida

Abstract

Aging, in itself, portrays a natural process of changes in people over time, but the increase in the population's life expectancy is a reality that health services need to deal with in the current context. Functional capacity enables subjects to perform their basic and instrumental activities on a daily basis, valuing autonomy and independence to overcome barriers, obstacles and daily challenges, integrating the elderly person into the family and society. Analyzing the autonomy of the elderly, users of a basic health unit, in managing their own lives and identifying their associated factors was the objective of this study. This is a quantitative cross-sectional study carried out with elderly people from a micro-area, from the Family Health Team. Data were obtained through the application of the Katz Scale and Lawton Scale and the Questionnaire for the Characterization of the Sociodemographic Profile. Regarding data analysis, descriptive methods and statistical inference were applied. In addition, Fisher's test was used to verify statistical significance (p) through bivariate analysis. The elderly aged between 60 and 70 years represent 59% of the studied group, those aged between 71 and 92 years account for 41%, while the average age of the participants is 71.5 years. The vast majority of the elderly (70%) have low schooling (0 to 8 years of study), and most are retired (60%). About 62% of the elderly receive up to two minimum wages. After the bivariate analysis, statistically significant correlations were identified related to the variables Instrumental Activities of Daily Living with age, schooling, family income and occupation. The study analyzed the elderly population both in relation to Basic Activities of Daily Living (ABVD) and in relation to Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). Most of the elderly (95%) were independent in terms of BADL. Regarding IADL, this percentage was 70%. And statistical significance was also identified in some of the socioeconomic and demographic variables studied.