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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.
Clinical and sociodemographic factors in a sample of older subjects experiencing depressive symptoms
- Authors:
- BARCELOS-FERREIRA Ricardo, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 27(9), September 2012, pp.923-930.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Clinically significant depressive symptoms (CSDS) decrease quality of life and are associated with excess morbidity and mortality in older adults. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of CSDS in a community sample of older Brazilians and to examine their relationship with sociodemographic factors, cognitive and functional impairment (CFI), and medical illness. The participants were 1145 individuals aged 60 years or older living in the City of Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. The participants completed the following instruments: a 10-item scale for screening of depressive symptoms in older people, the mini mental state examination, the Fuld Object Memory Evaluation, the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly, the Bayer Activities of Daily Living Scale, and a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire. The findings showed that the prevalence of CSDS in this community-based sample was 15.7%. Logistic regression analysis indicated that being previously depressed, having CFI, having lower level of education, using psychotropics, and not engaging in physical exercise were related to CSDS. On the other hand, being a woman, older, medically ill, employed, or married was not associated with CSDS.