Quality of Life in Community-Dwelling Older People with Functional and Nutritional Impairment and Depressive Symptoms: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil and Portugal.

BACKGROUND: The interaction of quality of life (QoL) with functionality, nutrition and depression has been studied, but few studies have compared different realities. Our objective was to compare the associations of QoL with impaired functionality, nutritional status and depressive symptoms among older people patients treated in primary health care (PHC) in Brazil and Portugal. METHODS: Cross-sectional, comparative study was conducted with primary data from PHC services in Brazil and Portugal with users over 65 years old. Participants' scores were classified as "impaired" and "preserved" for QoL, functional decline, nutrition and depression. We used Pearson's chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and the Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: Our sample had a total of 150 PHC users. We found lower QoL scores in Brazil, which were associated with the risk of functional decline for the domains Physical Functioning, General Health Perceptions, Mental Health dimensions and Physical Health. Nutritional impairment in the group from Portugal included the domains of Vitality and Social Role Functioning. For depressive impairment, Portugal showed an association with the domains Mental Health, Vitality and Social Role Functioning. CONCLUSIONS: QoL was associated with functional and nutritional impairment and depressive symptoms, highlighting physical, mental and social characteristics related to the perception of well-being.

Depression and quality of life in Brazilian and Portuguese older people communities: Analysis of association.

ABSTRACT: We aimed to compare the association of depression with aspects of quality of life (QoL) among older people users of primary health care (PHC) living in Brazil and Portugal.We carried out an observational, cross-sectional and comparative study with a quantitative approach in the PHC scope in Brazil and Portugal, where we obtained a nonrandom sample of 150 participants aged 65 years or older (100 Brazilians and 50 Portuguese). We used the socioeconomic and health data questionnaire, the Medical Outcomes Short-Form Health Survey QoL (SF-36) questionnaire and the Beck Inventory.Among the socioeconomic profiles, most were females aged between 65 and 80 years in both countries. There was a significant difference between groups in the income variable, with 100.0% of Portuguese people earning up to 1 minimum wage (P value <.001), and the presence of chronic diseases in 92.0% of respondents in Portugal (P value = .033). In the association analysis, most aspects of QoL had a higher median score (>50.0) within the categorical variables of "absent" and "mild" depression. The Emotional role functioning, Physical role functioning, Physical functioning, Mental health, Total score domains and the Mental health and Physical health summary measures stood out with this behavior in Brazil and in Portugal, where these latter 2 presented moderate to strong correlation values (ρ > 0.400) in Portugal. Greater associations of depression on QoL were revealed in Portugal than in Brazil. Among their most expressive associations, the Physical role functioning (odds ratio [OR] = 4.776; 95.0% confidence interval [CI]: 2.41-9.43), Physical functioning (OR = 3.037; 95.0% CI: 3.037), Vitality (OR = 6.000; 95.0% CI: 1.56-23.07) and Total score (OR = 3.727; 95.0% CI: 2.24-6.17) domains and the Mental health summary measure (OR = 3.870; 95.0% CI: 2.13-7.02) stood out.Aspects related to the emotional, physical, functional and mental health components stood out. The association and correlation with depression were more expressive in Portugal compared to Brazil. However, similar results were obtained in Brazil but with less relevance.