Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 4 of 4
The socio-economic determinants of older people's health in Brazil: the importance of marital status and income
- Authors:
- BOS Antonio, BOS Angelo J.
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 27(3), May 2007, pp.385-405.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Studies in various countries have reported that older people who are married have better health than older widows. This paper reports a replication of these analyses with Brazilian data. The main objective was to explore the relationships between marital status, individual and household income, and the health of men and women using ordered logistic regression with self-assessed health as the dependent variable. The explanatory variables of interest were gender, marital status, and individual and family income. The data are from a survey of 7,920 non-institutionalised older people resident in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul in 1995. The survey used a structured, multi-disciplinary questionnaire, which collected information on demographic attributes, household composition, social relations, occupation, income and health status. The results show that widows were 20 per cent more likely to report better health than married women. The women without individual income had worse health than those who did, even after controlling for family income. For men, there were no significant differences in health by marital status. The main recommendation is that the health status and economic circumstances of married elderly women should be given more attention in both research and policy, certainly in Brazil and probably in other Latin American countries. Programmes of income support to the poorest households should include specific transfers to these elderly women. Brazil's Family Health and Older People's Health public programmes should place more emphasis on the health of elderly home-makers.
Intergenerational interaction through reminiscence processes: a theoretical framework to explain attitude changes
- Author:
- DESOUZA Elza
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 5(1), 2007, pp.39-56.
- Publisher:
- Routledge
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia
An intergenerational intervention is described that was delivered in a Brazilian city with a very small (4%) proportion of the population over the age of 60. It involved 111 students and 32 older people who shared their life stories in the classroom. A focus group technique was used to evaluate the programme, and a theoretical framework was developed to explain the mechanism of changes in the attitudes of adolescents towards older people, and vice versa. The results show that stereotyped attitudes exist in both age groups. While the older people expressed pleasure at being valued and respected, the men did not generally change their attitudes. Boys felt they had learned a lot, girls valued the chance to socialise, and both appreciated learning how to respect older people. Both parties complained that the project (which ran from July to December 2002) was too short. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre, Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580).
Co-occurrence of chronic physical pain and psychiatric morbidity in a community sample of older people
- Authors:
- BLAY Sergio Luis, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22(9), September 2007, pp.903-908.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Knowledge about co-occurrence of the most frequent chronic pain symptoms with psychiatric morbidity in older people is very limited. The aim was to study the association of psychiatric morbidity and painful physical conditions in people aged 60 years and over. Population-based random sample of 7,040 household residents, aged 60 years and over, in Brazil. The overall prevalence of pain conditions is 76%. Age-sex specific prevalence of chronic pain conditions such as back pain, joint, abdominal, chest, headaches, reported by respondents ranged from 11.6% up to 51.1%. In logistic regression models, chest pain, head pain, back pain, joint pain and abdominal pain emerged as predictors of psychiatric morbidity. The odds of psychiatric morbidity are also affected by income, ethnicity, origin (urban/rural), and marital status. The association of chronic painful conditions and psychiatric morbidity in late life is statistically strong in this surveyed population.
Psychological distress in Brazilian caregivers of relatives with dementia
- Authors:
- BANDEIRA D. R., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 11(1), January 2007, pp.14-19.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The authors evaluated stress, anxiety, depression, and feelings of hopelessness in caregivers of relatives with dementia. One hundred and twenty-nine caregivers and 145 non-caregivers who lived in metropolitan Porto Alegre, Brazil completed Lipp's Inventory of Stress Symptoms for Adults, (ISSL), and Beck's Anxiety (BAI), Depression (BDI), and Hopelessness (BHS) scales. Caregivers showed higher levels of anxiety, depression, hopelessness, resistance/pre-exhaustion stress than controls. This study indicates that constant caregiving may significantly increase the risk of physical and mental health problems for caregivers in Brazil.