Illiteracy and poor schooling is still a major problem in developing countries. As life expectancy is increasing steadily, these countries have many illiterate elderly at risk of developing dementia. In fact, illiteracy has been considered a risk factor for dementia, along with age, female gender, and living cional (analfabetos/alfabetizados: OR=15,60; p=0/ OR = 16,40; p=0). Idade e gênero são fatores associados a comprometimento cognitivo/funcional (p<0,05). A prevalência de comprometimento cognitivo/funcional é mais alta que a encontrada em outro estudo brasileiro. Idade, gênero feminino e comprometimento funcional estão diretamente associados a comprometimento cognitivo. O reconhecimento de comprometimento funcional pode ser mais fácil por familiares/profissionais de saúde. Isso reforça a idéia do uso combinado de escalas em rastreamentos de demência. PREVALENCE OF COGNITIVE AND FUNCTIONAL IMPAIRMENT IN COMMUNITY-DWELLING ELDERLYPA L AV R A S -C H AVE: Status funcional, comprometimento cognitivo, epidemiologia, prevalência, fatores de risco

This study aimed to find cut-off scores for the Montgomery-Asberg rating scale (MADRS) and the Beck depression inventory (BDI) that can relate to specific clinical diagnoses of depression in Parkinson s disease (PD). Mild and moderate PD patients (n=46) were evaluated for depression according to the DSM IV criteria. All patients were assessed with the MADRS and the BDI. A "receiver operating characteristics" (ROC) curve was obtained and the sensibility, specificity, positive and the negative predictive values were calculated for different cut-off scores of the MADRS and the BDI. The Kappa statistic was calculated for different cut-off scores to assess the agreement between the clinical judgment and both scales. Depression was present in 18 patients. MADRS cut-off scores of 6 and 10 showed Kappa 0.5 and 0.56, respectively. Specificity of cut-off score of 6 was 78.6% and of cut-off score of 10 was 96.4%. Kappa agreement of BDI cut-off scores of 10 and 18 were 0.36 and 0.62, respectively. Specificity was 60.7% for 10 and 92.9% for 18. Both rating scales show similar accuracy within the ROC curves (84.3% for MADRS and 79.7% for BDI). The MADRS and the BDI show a good accuracy and correlation to the clinical diagnosis when a cut-off score of 10 is used to MADRS and a cut-off score of 18 is used to BDI to recognize depression in mild to moderate PD patients. This may help clinicians to recognize depression in PD.

OBJETIVOS: Esta revisão tem dois objetivos. 1. Examinar o impacto da depressão sobre a cognição na Doença de Parkinson (DP). 2. Examinar o papel da depressão como fator de risco tanto para DP como para transtorno cognitivo na DP. METODOLOGIA: Revisão na literatura internacional, Medline, de artigos clínicos seccionais, prospectivos e de caso controle, avaliando a função cognitiva de parkinsonianos com e sem depressão, entre 1967 e 2003. Palavras-chave Doença de Parkinson, Depressão e cognição. RESULTADOS: Os trabalhos sobre o impacto da depressão na cognição de parkinsonianos apresentam afirmações divergentes. Cinco artigos concluem que há impacto e quatro não confirmam esses dados. Pode-se afirmar que a depressão é um fator de risco para DP, assim como a DP é um fator de risco para depressão. No entanto, nenhuma definição foi possível no que se refere à depressão como fator de risco para transtornos cognitivos em parkinsonianos. Observa-se que os dados sobre a prevalência de depressão e déficit cognitivo na DP são inconclusivos, com grande margem percentual entre os autores. A depressão em parkinsonianos está associada com avanço da gravidade da DP, estágio avançado de Hoehn e Yahr, alta pontuação na Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), ocorrência de quedas, baixa pontuação no Mini Exame do Estado Mental (MEEM) e na Escala Schwab e England, déficit cognitivo, bradicinesia axial, alterações na marcha e no balanço, idade mais avançada, sexo feminino e presença de alteração do pensamento. CONCLUSÃO: A interação entre depressão e DP é complexa e bidirecional. A depressão é um fator de risco para DP, assim como DP é um fator de risco para depressão. É possível se traçar um perfil mais homogêneo do paciente deprimido com DP que evolui com transtorno cognitivo, mas não foi possível definir a depressão como um fator de risco para transtornos cognitivos na DP. Estudos que utilizem critérios diagnósticos definidos e com amostras representativas da população podem trazer esclarecimento sobre o assunto.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence and associated access factors for all continued-use prescription drugs and the ways in which they can be obtained.METHODS Data was obtained from the 2008 Household National Survey. The sample comprised 27,333 individuals above 60 years who reported that they used continued-use prescription drugs. A descriptive analysis and binary and multiple multinomial logistic regressions were performed.RESULTS 86.0% of the older adults had access to all the medication they needed, and among them, 50.7% purchased said medication. Those who obtained medication from the public health system were younger (60-64 years), did not have health insurance plans, and belonged to the lower income groups. It is remarkable that 14.0% of the subjects still had no access to any continued-use medication, and for those with more than four chronic diseases, this amount reached 22.0%. Those with a greater number of chronic diseases ran a higher risk of not having access to all the medication they needed.CONCLUSIONS There are some groups of older adults with an increased risk of not obtaining all the medication they need and of purchasing it. The results of this study are expected to contribute to guide programs and plans for access to medication in Brazil.

To establish the incidence of type 1 diabetes among children (infants to 14 years of age) in the city of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (population under 15 years = 50,098), during the period of January to December 1996, a retrospective and prospective population-based registry was established, using physician reports of newly diagnosed patients under 15 years of age with type 1 diabetes as the primary source of case identification. Primary and nursery schools and a general call through the media (newspapers, radio and television) was the secondary source. Data were calculated according to the methods recommended by the WHO (1990). Six new cases were identified. Case ascertainment was estimated at 100%. The incidence of type 1 diabetes in the year 1996 was 12/100,000 inhabitants. These data indicate that the incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes in a subtropical region in the Southern part of Brazil was similar to that observed in developed countries throughout the world. The inability to demonstrate the North-South gradient is probably due to the European origin of inhabitants of the city.