Environmental conditions and health in the elderly living in rural and urban areas in a municipality in the Brazilian Northeast

INTRODUCTION: Aging is an individual process, which is influenced by extrinsic factors such as functional capacity, activities and social interactions, which produces impact on quality of life. OBJECTIVE: To identify health conditions and environmental and home extra home among elderly rural and urban municipality of Macambira, SE. METHODS: This is a quantitative survey, a cross sectional study of 270 subjects (156 in urban area and 114 rural area). RESULTS: We noted a predominance of women in both areas (urban 71.79% and 50.88% rural), the vast majority of older people living in urban areas comes from the rural area (83.33%); 73.72% in urban areas and 87.72% in rural living with the family. The water supply for general network is 98.72% in urban areas and 46.49% in rural areas and also supplied by wells or springs 23.68%. As for the fate of the garbage, 98.08% of the subjects in the urban area reported having regular collection, while in rural garbage is burned or buried in 65.79% of the households. CONCLUSION: The urban environment of the city of Macambira presents difficulties for the elderly in relation to the inadequacy of sidewalks and parks for physical exercise or even shift to secure public and private places. In rural areas, the main environmental problems are water supply and packaging waste, issues relevant to public health. In both areas the majority does not use public transport means, predominantly offset by foot, which may be indicative of environmental influences on activity and social contacts of elderly people in the region studied.