EpiFloripa Aging cohort study: methods, operational aspects, and follow-up strategies

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To describe the sample plan, operational aspects, and strategies used in the 2009/2010 and 2013/2014 EpiFloripa Aging Study.METHODS The EpiFloripa Aging is a population-based longitudinal study with 1,705 older adults (60 years or more) living in the municipality of Florianópolis, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 2009/2010 (baseline). The research was conducted with a face-to-face interviews, organized into blocks of identification, socioeconomic, mental health, health and life habits, global functionality, falls, physical activity, morbidities, use of health services, use of medications, food, oral health, and violence, evaluated in the first (2009/2010) and in the second wave (2013/2014). Additionally, in the second wave, we investigated the issue of discrimination and quality of life.RESULTS The response rate of the first wave was 89.2% (n = 1,705). The baseline sample, with predominance of women (63.9%), was similar to the 2010 Census regarding age for women and slightly different for younger men. In the second wave, 1,197 participants were interviewed (response rate of 70.3%). Follow-up losses were only observed for the variable age group (p = 0.003), and predominantly for those aged 80 years or more. Mortality data linkage and active search for participants were used as a follow-up strategies.CONCLUSIONS This study used strategies that were able to help locate the participants and maintain adherence, which ensured a good response rate during investigations.

Contextual income and incidence of disability

“…Neighborhood income having been associated only with BADL shows greater urgency of investments in prevention initiatives, since these basic activities represent disability in its most severe form, being normally affected after IADL. Also concerning the study methodology, it should be noted as a positive point the absence of significant losses of seniors between the two waves according to the variables studied, except for the age variable (p < 0.001), which presented higher loss of seniors aged over 80 years due to deaths in this category 13 .…”

“…Data consistency was assessed weekly during collection periods and quality control showed satisfactory to good consistency at the two times, with Kappa index values between 0.6 and 0.9 (baseline) and between 0.5 and 0.9 (follow-up). Further details about the methodological and cohort sampling procedures are found in another publication 13 .…”

Associação entre uso de internet e manter-se ativo no lazer, estudo longitudinal EpiFloripa Idoso

“…This contradictory fact evidenced in the present study that older people with lower schooling levels are more likely to remain physically active during the four-year period than those who are more educated may be explained by some reasons such as: the association between socioeconomic level and physical activity is very complex 27 because the expenditure of physical activities, the modality practiced as well as the time spent with these activities vary greatly in their relation with socioeconomic variables; the individuals surveyed are mostly retirees, which leads them to have more time to practice leisure physical activities 26 , which increase their chances of remaining physically active regardless of schooling; the majority of individuals (58%) had minimum of five years of schooling 22 , which may influence the analysis of data, since only 42% of them have low monthly income, thus biasing the analysis; Florianópolis had one of the highest Human Development Indexes (HDI) in Brazil in 2010 (year in which the study baseline was collected), which may influence the health and behavioral habits of the studied cohort 23 , as well as greater similarities of sociodemographic variables, such as income.…”

“…This longitudinal, population-based and household study was part of the "Health Conditions of Elderly from Florianópolis" project, called "Epi-Floripa Idoso", whose more detailed explanations of methods can be found in other publications 22,23 .…”

Prevalência e simultaneidade de fatores de risco cardiovasculares em idosos participantes de um estudo de base populacional no sul do Brasil

“…The sample was selected by clusters in two stages. In the first stage, the urban census tracts of the municipality were selected and then, in the second, the households were selected according to methodology that has been previously detailed in other studies 27,28 . Data collection took place between September 2009 and June 2010 by trained interviewers using a structured questionnaire in the form of face-to-face interviews by means of Personal Digital Assistants (PDA).…”