Risco de depressão em idosos cadastrados na atenção primária à saúde.

Abstract

To age can be considered a natural phenomenon that results in the appearance of fragilities and vulnerabilities, which influence health and lifestyle. This process promotes changes in the pattern of diseases and entails several disabilities, with impairment of the physical, cognitive and sensorial functions that lead reduction of functional capacities, with a high prevalence of mental disturbance, mainly depression, frequent in elderly persons, that can be underdiagnosed and unnoticed. Objective: To determine the prevalence of the risk of depression in the elderly enrolled in Primary Health Care in Pombal-PB city, through the application of Yesavage‟s Geriatric Depression Scale, short version (GDS-15). Method: This is a Cross-sectional correlational analytical study based on quantitative approach, realized in Pombal / Paraiba city, linked to the Thesis project "Associated Factors with Fragility in Elderly in the Primary Care Context". The population was composed by elderly people 65 years of age or older enrolled in Primary Health Care – PHC. It was 307 elderly distributed proportionally among the 12 Basic Health Units (BHU) following some criterions, like: to be registered for at least six months in one of BHU, reside in registered address and have locomotive conditions to participate in the study. The data were collected through Yesavage‟s Geriatric Depression Scale, short version (GDS-15) and analyzed in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 2.0. After it was realized the Pearson chisquared significance test, fisher exact test and Poison regression. It was considered the ethical observances contemplated in the regulatory guidelines and norms for research involving human beings - Resolution 466/12 of the National Health Council. The project was evaluated and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, under Certificate of Presentation for Ethical Appreciation (CAAE): 62429616.0.0000.5149. Results: The results showed an association between the sociodemographic and clinical participants profile and depression risk. The elderly with the highest risk for the development of depression are: male (41,4 %), widow or separated (45,8%), that does not work (43, 5%), that were not pensioner (55,6%), that did not attend school (45,3%), with health problems (42,7%), with diabetes mellitus (56,2%), and with thyroid diseases (69,6%), which showed that these variables have a strong relation with depression. A worrisome data was the prevalence of risk of depression in the sample, which 41.0% of the elderly interviewed presented risk for the development of this disease. Conclusion: In view of the results obtained, it is possible to identify the prevalence of elderly people presenting signs and symptoms of risk for the onset of depression, showing that in Pombal - PB city, the number of elderly people at risk of this disease is higher than the national indexes. This indicates the need to develop strategies that can promote the tracing, so that enable interventions to prevent the development of this disease.