OBJECTIVE:

to identify sociodemographic, behavioral and health changes in a follow-up of participants in the health survey EpiFloripa Idoso.

METHODS:

this is a population-based longitudinal study with elderly individuals in Florianópolis-SC, Brazil.

RESULTS:

1,702 elderly individuals were interviewed in 2009-2010 and 1,197 in 2013-2014 (response rate: 89.1% and 70.2%, respectively); among followed-up individuals, most of them remained with a partner (53.4%), living with other people (76.0%), not working (78.0%), with positive health perception (44.0%), not using the Internet (67.5%), not smoking (57.5%), not consuming alcohol (53.3%), not physically active (56.3%), consuming <5 servings of fruits/vegetables (57.3%), independent (60.5%), overweight (47.0%), with negative screening for cognitive impairment (69.4%), with no depressive symptoms (72.0%) and not having suffered falls (60.6%).

CONCLUSION:

most elderly did not show significant changes in their sociodemographic, behavioral and health characteristics; the need to rethink more effective actions to improve the elderly health stands out.

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