Diferenças sobre aspectos de vida, saúde e nutrição associadas à participação em grupos de convivência para pessoas idosas

Abstract

Objectives: To assess differences in aspects of life, health and nutrition associated with participation in social groups for elderly people in Governador Valadares - Minas Gerais. Methodology: The sample consisted of 91 elderly individuals participating in social groups and 90 non-participants. The sociodemographic, health and life profile was defined based on the variables gender, age, education, marital status, source of income, monthly income, occurrence of diseases, polypharmacy, physical exercise, self-perception of health, consumption of alcoholic beverages, smoking, BMI and WC. And the characteristics of the diet were defined based on the variables breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and supper, consumption of beans on the previous day, consumption of fresh fruit on the previous day, consumption of vegetables and legumes on the previous day, consumption of hamburgers and/or sausages on the previous day, consumption of sweetened beverages on the previous day, consumption of packaged snacks or salty biscuits on the previous day, consumption of stuffed biscuits or sweets or treats on the previous day. To compare the categorical variables, the Chi-Square test and Fisher's exact test were used. In all analyses, the significance level was maintained at 0.05. Results: The results representing the sociodemographic, health and lifestyle characteristics showed that the study population is predominantly composed of women, without partners, with less than 8 years of schooling and with a monthly income ≥ 1 minimum wage. It was observed that the elderly people who participated in the Elderly Social Group were mostly women (p= 0.0001), did not have their own income and did not receive assistance (p= 0.0001), had lower income (p= 0.0001), and a lower median number of dependents on their income (p= 0.025). Furthermore, it was possible to observe a higher occurrence of physical activity (p= 0.0001) and a lower occurrence of alcohol consumption (p= 0.0001) among the elderly people who participated in the CG. Higher rates of dinner (p=0.0001) and bean consumption (p=0.03) were observed among elderly individuals participating in GCPI, while higher rates of morning snacks (p=0.0001) and supper (p=0.009) were observed in elderly individuals not participating in GCPI. There was no significant difference in the mean number of daily meals, as well as in the median number of markers of healthy and unhealthy eating between elderly individuals participating or not in GCPI. Conclusion: The majority of GCPI participants are women, with low income and low education levels. The results of the study showed that health conditions, living conditions and dietary characteristics were better among the elderly who participated in GCPI.