Screening for depressive symptoms in older adults in the Family Health Strategy, Porto Alegre, Brazil

• Main Authors: Eduardo Lopes Nogueira, Leonardo Librelotto Rubin, Sara de Souza Giacobbo, Irenio Gomes, Alfredo Cataldo Neto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo 2014-06-01
• Series: Revista de Saúde Pública
• Subjects: Idoso; Depressão, epidemiologia; Estratégia Saúde da Família; Serviços de Saúde Mental, recursos humanos; Estudos Transversais
• Online Access: http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-89102014000300368&lng=en&tlng=en

OBJECTIVE To analyze the prevalence of depression in older adults and associated factors. METHODS Cross-sectional study using a stratified random sample of 621 individuals aged ≥ 60 from 27 family health teams in Porto Alegre, RS, Southern Brazil, between 2010 and 2012. Community health agents measured depression using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. Scores of ≥ 6 were considered as depression and between 11 and 15 as severe depression. Poisson regression was used to search for independent associations of sociodemographic and self-perceived health with both depression and its severity. RESULTS The prevalence of depression was 30.6% and was significantly higher in women (35.9% women versus 20.9% men, p < 0.001). The variables independently associated with depression were: female gender (PR = 1.4, 95%CI 1.1;1.8); low education, especially illiteracy (PR = 1.8, 95%CI 1.2;2 6); regular self-rated health (OR = 2.2, 95%CI 1.6;3.0); and poor/very poor self-rated health (PR = 4.0, 95%CI 2.9;5.5). Except for education, the strength of association of these factors increases significantly in severe depression. CONCLUSIONS A high prevalence of depression was observed in the evaluations conducted by community health agents, professionals who are not highly specialized. The findings identified using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale in this way are similar to those in the literature, with depression more associated with low education, female gender and worse self-rated health. From a primary health care strategic point of view, the findings become still more relevant, indicating that community health agents could play an important role in identifying depression in older adults.