The independent effect of chronic diseases, sociodemographic and behavioral factors related to disability in older people living in Ribeir?￡o Preto, SP, 2007 - The EPIDCV Project

摘要

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence and correlates of functional disability in elderly people living in Ribeir?￡o Preto, SP. Methods: This is a cross-sectional population-based epidemiological study with multistage sampling. Design effect was corrected using a weighted sample composed by 536 elderly people. Disability based on daily living activities dependence (outcome) was assessed by using a validated questionnaire for population-based epidemiological studies. Points and 95% confidence intervals estimated crude and stratified prevalence rates of the outcome according to sociodemographic, behavioral, health-related, and self-reported morbidity variables. To identify the correlates, the crude and adjusted prevalence ratios were estimated using Poisson regression. Results: The crude prevalence of disability was 50.31%. In the multivariate models, after simultaneous intra-group adjustment (final models), the following variables remained independently associated with the outcome: sociodemographic (age, education, and contribution to familiar income); behavioral (daily mean of sitting time); health-related factors (hypertension, ischemic heart disease, medicines taken, and low cognitive performance); and self-reported morbidity (number of diseases and low hearing performance). Conclusions: The high prevalence of disability among elderly people in Ribeir?￡o Preto and the presence of modifiable variables impose the need for specific health promotion and prevention measures, aiming a better quality of life for this population group, which is already well represented in the city's most recent population pyramids.