Quality of life and depressive symptoms among elderly in primary care

Abstract

To evaluate the perception of quality of life (QoL) and its relationship to socioeconomic variables and depressive symptoms in elders that use Primary Care. Methods: this is an analytical, descriptive, quantitative and cross-sectional study conducted in 2016 and 2017 with 248 senior citizens registered in the Primary Health Care Units of the city of Uberaba, MG. A sociodemographic questionnaire was used, together with the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the WHOQOL-Bref and the WHOQOL-Old. The psychological domain had the highest score and the environmental the lowest. Their score on the WHOQOL-Old was 64.9, the highest score was in the intimacy facet and the lowest in the social participation one. The variables gender, age, education, income, occupation, religion, and having a partner affected the physical, psychological and social domains of the WHOQOL-Bref, and the facets autonomy, death or dying, intimacy and sensory function affected the WHOQOL-Old. Depressive symptoms, observed in 32.7% of the elders, influenced all domains of the WHOQOL-Bref and all facets of the WHOQOL-Old. Depressive symptoms were strong predictors of the worse scores of quality of life perception in both instruments. The results found can guide interventions to minimize depressive symptoms, positively impacting the perception of QoL.

Keywords

• quality of life
• depression
• primary health care