Abstract

SANTOS, Maria Auxiliadora  and  MATTOS, Inês Echenique. Life and health conditions of the old population of the Municipality of Guaramiranga-CE. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde [online]. 2011, vol.20, n.2, pp.193-201. ISSN 1679-4974.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742011000200008.

OBJECTIVE:: to describe the living and health conditions of the elder population of the municipality of Guaramiranga, State of Ceará, Brazil. METHODOLOGY: a cross-sectional population-based study with data collection tool adapted from the SABE Project; descriptive analysis through frequency distributions, and the chi-square test to verify the presence of associations. RESULTS: the study population consisted of 438 elderly people, mostly women, aged between 60 to 69 years, and with low education; age, presence of chronic disease, and physical activity were associated with self-reported health; the prevalence of visual impairment was of 73.9%, while that of hearing impairment was of 29.1%, and 31.1% reported joint problems; age was associated with difficulties in performing daily living activities. CONCLUSION: the study draws fairly approximate profile of the life and health conditions of the elderly population of Guaramiranga and may contribute to the development of municipal public policies aimed at this group.

Keywords : elder population; health conditions; self-reported health; socio-demographic factors; epidemiology.

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