Functional disability of adults in Brazil: prevalence and associated factors

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence and factors associated with functional disability in adults in Brazil.METHODS We used information from the health supplement of the National Household Sample Survey in 2008. The dependent variable was the functional disability among adults of 18 to 65 years, measured by the difficulty of walking about 100 meters; independent variables were: health plan membership, region of residence, state of domicile, education level, household income, economic activity, self-perception of health, hospitalization, chronic diseases, age group, sex, and color. We calculated the gross odds ratios (OR), and their respective confidence intervals (95%), and adjusted them for variables of study by ordinal logistic regression, following hierarchical model. Sample weights were considered in all calculations.RESULTS We included 18,745 subjects, 74.0% of whom were women. More than a third of adults reported having functional disability. The disability was significantly higher among men (OR = 1.17; 95%CI 1.09;1.27), people from 35 to 49 years (OR = 1.30; 95%CI 1.17;1.45) and 50 to 65 years (OR = 1.38; 95%CI 1.24;1.54); economically inactive individuals (OR = 2.21; 95%CI 1.65;2.96); adults who reported heart disease (OR = 1.13; 95%CI 1.03;1.24), diabetes mellitus (OR = 1.16; 95%CI 1.05;1.29), arterial systemic hypertension (OR = 1.10; 95%CI 1.02;1.18), and arthritis/rheumatism (OR = 1.24; 95%CI 1.15;1.34); and participants who were admitted in the last 12 months (OR = 2.35; 95%CI 1.73;3.2).CONCLUSIONS Functional disability is common among Brazilian adults. Hospitalization is the most strongly associated factor, followed by economic activity, and chronic diseases. Sex, age, education, and income are also associated. Results indicate specific targets for actions that address the main factors associated with functional disabilities and contribute to the projection of interventions for the improvement of the well-being and promotion of adults’ quality of life.

Health-related consequences of caring for dependent relatives in older adult caregivers

“…Caregiver illness is aggravated when it comes to an older adult person playing this role, since they already have alterations due to aging (6) , which together with the overload of care can further compromise their health and quality of life. Regarding the musculoskeletal system, common alterations of senescence should be considered, since bone and muscle mass loss, tendon elasticity and joint elasticity loss are present at this stage.…”

Whodas 2.0-BO

“…Functional evaluation measures that can identify not only impairments to the activities of daily living, but also to the restriction of participation in the community, are thus of great relevance. The early identification of loss of functionality assists the planning of preventive strategies, avoiding the aggravation or the appearance of greater functional disabilities 4 . Disability must be understood as a comprehensive, dynamic and multidimensional concept 5 .…”

“…Normative data of the WHODAS 2.0-BO version for older Brazilians are necessary for the use of the instrument to be viable, for it to have clinical significance and for the results obtained to be comparable. It is also important to identify whether this instrument can recognize factors associated with the disability of older adults in the community so that preventive measures may be proposed 4 .…”

Correlations between low back pain and functional capacity among the elderly

“…Functional capacity has attracted increasing attention in recent years, as disability can lead to an increase in the number of chronic diseases and cause difficulties in maintaining autonomy, which is strongly linked to quality of life, during old age. This decline can make the elderly individual dependent on other people or some type of care [7][8][9][10] . Considering the growing global elderly population, this dysfunction has generated a great deal of discussion about healthy aging.…”