Quality of life of participants in a fall prevetion program in the city of Maceió

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Social, psychological, physical and environmental factors, associated with the functional impairment resulting from aging, can interfere with the quality of life of the aging individual.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of life of participants in a fall prevention program in the city of Maceió.

METHODS: This is an observational, cross-sectional study carried out with data from participants in a fall prevention program in the city of Maceió, which included all participants aged 60 or over, who underwent the assessment before the start of interventions and had their data recorded in the medical records, excluding those who did not complete the entire evaluation or had errors in the records and those who presented cognitive impairment according to the Mine mental status exam. Data related to socioeconomic and demographic characteristics (age, sex, education, salary income and participation in elderly groups) were analyzed; health data (number of associated diseases, physical activity, health perception and history of falls) and quality of life assessment, measured by Whoqol-bref. To elucidate the influence of the various variables on the Whoqol-bref domains, multivariate linear regression analyzes were performed.

RESULTS: The final sample was 66 elderly (70.28 ± 9.2), with a predominance of females 54 (81.8%). The means of the four domains were similar, with superiority for the psychological. There was a significant association between the Whoqol total score and good perception of health (p <0.01) and education (p <0.06); between the environmental domain and functional repercussions after falling (p <0.01) and education (p = 0.04); between the physical domain and good health perception (p <0.01), number of diseases (p = 0.03) and physical activity (p = 0.02); between the psychological domain and good perception of health (p <0.01) and education (p = 0.04).

CONCLUSION: The quality of life of the participants showed a balance between the physical, psychological, social and environmental domains, being superior in the psychological domain. It was associated with factors such as good perception of health, education, physical activity, number of associated diseases and the presence of functional repercussions after a fall.