AVALIAÇÃO DA QUALIDADE DE VIDA, TERAPIA COMUNITÁRIA INTEGRATIVA,
APOIO FAMILIAR E SATISFAÇÃO COM OS SERVIÇOS DE SAÚDE ENTRE
IDOSOS COM E SEM SINTOMAS DE DEPRESSÃO
Elderly. Depression. Quality of life. Integrative community therapy. Satisfaction with health services.
Depression is a mental disorder that affects people of all age groups. However with the aging of the world population, it became a public health problem for the eldest population, since it affects the quality of life and increases the risk of death at this stage of life. One of the main challenges that needs specific attention is the health of the ancient. In addition to this, the act of screening depression is equally important. Moreover, it’s necessary to trace individuals with symptoms and identify factors that can possibly contribute or even worsen these symptoms. Some aspects can affect and worsen depression including socio-economic factors and patient satisfaction with health services and family relationship. All of these can compromise the quality of life
of the elderly. Therefore, the present study aims to make a contrast between noninstitutionalized elderly people who have or not depression symptoms and also considering the quality of life, social aspects, economic and clinical use of antidepressants and / or other drugs against depression, integrative community therapy, family support and satisfaction with health services. This is a cross-sectional study of cases formed by patients with scores greater than 5 in Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the controls of the elderly with lower or equal score of 5 in GDS. It was conducted in a psychosocial support center of the west and east zones and in
the specialized elderly health center, respectively in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte Brazil. The following instruments have been used to collect data: a demographic and socioeconomic clinical quiz, family assessment device (FAD), world health organization quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) and the User Satisfaction Rating Scale with Health Services (SATIS -BR). Socio- demographic and clinical concerns between the case and control groups were compared using the chisquared test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The scores of the WHOQOL-BREF, FAD, and SATIS-BR scores were also compared using ANOVA. p values lt; 0.05 were taken into account. The Group was composed of 54 cases of old people and the control was made up of 61. At 51.85% of cases group have had a diagnosis of depression and 27.87% in the control group, showing a p = 0.007. As to the quality of life, the Group of cases presenting a commitment in the field of social relations (p =
0.003).
The FAD has identified a solution for main family commitment cases of, 2.09 ± 0.70 values, while 2.04 ± 0.54 controls (p = 0.040). Regarding satisfaction with health services in facet satisfaction with the place where the services are offered, the Group of cases showed the highest satisfaction (3.03 ± 1.04), meanwhile the controls
(2.92 ± 0.80) were less satisfied (p = 0.007). Low income and education of the elderly population contributes to the onset of depressive symptoms. Although, pharmacological therapy with antidepressants and drugs against antianxiety don’t totally effective reverse the depressive symptoms. On the other hand, the integrative
community therapy shows itself a great strategy when associated with the pharmacological therapy for the treatment of depressive symptoms.