Impact of socioeconomic factors in the functionality of elderly individuals with chronic conditions

Abstract

Aim: to identify the impact of socioeconomic factors in the functionality of elderly individuals with chronic conditions. Method: quantitative research with 346 participants. Functionality for Basic and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living was evaluated using the Katz index and the Lawton scale. Socioeconomic and health data were analyzed descriptively, their association with the functionality was verified using the Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. Results: dependence on Basic and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living was associated with variables of gender, income, living arrangement and age group. Education and housing neighborhood were associated only with Instrumental Activities. The variable multiple pathologies was not significant when correlated with functional dependence. Conclusions: the data confirm the need to consider the social determinants of the functional loss when planning nursing actions, since medicalization disconnected from health promotion is insufficient to manage the process of getting chronically sick