Health indicators associated with functional disability in low-income elderly

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between functional disability for basic and instrumental activities of daily living and behavioral aspects of health in the elderly and residents of neighborhoods Restinga and Far southern city of Porto Alegre. METHODS: A cross-sectional study, including 638 individuals aged greater than or equal to 60 years. For the evaluation of basic and instrumental activities of daily living, Katz's Index and Lawton Scale, were used respectively. Defined as functional disability for each area needing help in at least one activity investigated. The independent variables were: smoking, physical activity, excessive alcohol consumption, hypertension, depression, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, osteoporosis, hospitalizations in the previous year, number of physician visits in the last three months and self-rated health. We used the Wald test for heterogeneity and trend in the crude analysis and Poisson regression with robust variance in the adjusted analysis. RESULTS:: The prevalence of disability for basic and instrumental activities was 15.8% (95% CI: 12.9-18.6) and 25.9% (95% CI: 22.5-29.3), respectively. It was observed that elderly patients with osteoporosis (PR = 1.64) and greater number of physician visits in the last three months had higher occurrences of failure to basic activities. As for instrumental activities, the elderly diagnosed with depression had greater functional disability (PR = 1.39). Both the functional and basic activities for instrumental activities were associated with physical inactivity and poor self-rated health. CONCLUSION: Functional disability for basic and instrumental activities were associated with several behavioral and health. Physical inactivity and poorer perceptions of health were the factors most strongly associated with disability in both areas investigated.