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

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the prevalence of depression in older adults and associatedfactors.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study using a stratified random sample of 621 individualsaged ≥ 60 from 27 family health teams in Porto Alegre, RS, Southern Brazil,between 2010 and 2012. Community health agents measured depression using the15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. Scores of ≥ 6 were considered asdepression and between 11 and 15 as severe depression. Poisson regressionwas used to search for independent associations of sociodemographic andself-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 variablesindependently 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;26); regular self-rated health (OR = 2.2, 95%CI 1.6;3.0); and poor/very poorself-rated health (PR = 4.0, 95%CI 2.9;5.5). Except for education, thestrength of association of these factors increases significantly in severedepression.

CONCLUSIONS

A high prevalence of depression was observed in the evaluations conducted bycommunity health agents, professionals who are not highly specialized. Thefindings identified using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale in this wayare similar to those in the literature, with depression more associated withlow education, female gender and worse self-rated health. From a primaryhealth care strategic point of view, the findings become still morerelevant, indicating that community health agents could play an importantrole in identifying depression in older adults.