PAIVA, Rebeca da Silva.
Abstract:
Society nowadays has been increasingly concerned with health conditions, quality of life and nutrition. However, considering the lifestyle, we can observe that people are increasingly being affected by mental illnesses such as depression in the geriatric stage, with the highest prevalence occurring in the institutionalized elderly, since it implies distancingfrom society. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between signsof depression, nutritional status and quality of life in institutionalized elderly who are residents in the nursing home St. Vincent de Paul (referred to in Portuguese as São Vicente de Paulo), in the city of Campina Grande – PB. A subsample of this study consisted of 13 elderly patients presenting signs of depression. All participants completed the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) questionnaire and then the elderly underwent anthropometric measurements,including weight, height, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC), and finally a questionnairewas applied tothe caregiverresponsible forthe asylum in order to assess relevant information about the quality of life of the seniors. Accordingto the signs indicative of depression basedon the scale,it was possibleto observe that 61, 4% had lightsigns, whereas 38, 4% of the participants presented severesigns. Therewas a higher prevalence of female participants, whoseage rangedfrom 71 to 80 years (38, 5%). It was also found that 53, 8% of the study population showed normal weight, 27% were overweight and 18% presented state of thinness. Participants who did not show loss of relatives and friends were higher than thosewho havefaced such a loss, with the highest prevalence of normal weight (38, 4%). Of the total population, the majority showed socioeconomic income of a minimum wage (61, 5%). It can be concluded that more studies related to depression symptoms, quality of life and nutritional status are needed.
