Functional disability and socioeconomic and demographic factors in elderly.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: to verify the prevalence of functional disability and associated socioeconomic and demographic factors in elderly patients of Campina Grande/PB. METHOD: cross-sectional study with elderly patients of both genders. The variables associated with functional disability were assessed using Poisson regression. RESULTS: A total of 420 elderly patients were included (68.1% women). The highest prevalence of functional disability were found among females aged 80 or older, white, widowed, of economic classes D/E , who lived alone, with frequency of contacts of up to 224 people and diversity of contacts of up to 14 people. After multivariate analysis, statistically significant association was observed between functional disability, gender and age group. CONCLUSION: the association between functional disability gender and age group is shown to be an important guidance for health interventions since it will allow health services to plan actions aiming to improve, maintain or restore the functional capacity of the elderly population.