Prevalência da depressão autorreferida em idosos brasileiros: pesquisa nacional de saúde, 2013

Abstract

Depression is the most common mental illness more frequent in the late life. Affects the mental and physical health, it can cause suffering and troubles in the person’s life and for who lives together with them. In old age, the symptoms turn out to be confused as something natural, arising from aging and not properly diagnosed. Objective: To describe the prevalence self reported previous medical diagnosis of depression in elderly brazilian population in 2013. Methods: Datas from the 2013 National Health Survey available in DATASUS. It will be considerate elderly with self report depression according the Brazil’regions. Results: The prevalence of self-reported depression in the elderly was 11.03%, higher in women (78.15%), and in those who declared themselves as white (61.01%). Still the highest prevalences were in individuals without education or with fundamental not complet (65,17%), although most of them are able to read or write (83,34%). For residence place the individuals occupy more the urban zone (91.33%) and in the Southeast region (54.55%). Final considerations: The numbers serve to alert how is the mental health of elderly. Depressive disorders lead to a significant impact on the life’s quality of the elderly, the identification of associated factors may lead to public policies that provide for earlier interventions.