Determinants of socioeconomic factors for quality of life and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older people: A cross-sectional study in Brazil and Portugal

• Published in: PloS one 2023-06, Vol.18 (6), p.e0287163-e0287163
• Main Authors: Torres, Larissa Silva Sadovski, Oliveira, Adriana Catarina de Souza, Araújo, Mayara Priscilla Dantas, de Carvalho, Maria Débora Silva, Barbosa, Lívia Batista da Silva Fernandes, Dantas, Bruno Araújo da Silva, Martínez, Carmelo Sergio Gómez, de Miranda, Francisco Arnoldo Nunes, Mendes, Felismina Rosa Parreira, Torres, Gilson de Vasconcelos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age groups; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Association analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Brazil - epidemiology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Depression - epidemiology; Depression, Mental; Diagnosis; Domains; Education; Family income; Female; Health aspects; Health surveys; Humans; Income; Independent Living; Marital status; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Multivariate analysis; Older people; People and places; Population; Portugal - epidemiology; Psychological aspects; Quality of Life; Registration; Research ethics; Risk factors; Social factors; Social Sciences; Socioeconomic data; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomics; Wages & salaries
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287163

Our aim was to analyze the association between socioeconomic status and quality of life (QoL) among older people with depressive symptoms treated through the Primary Health Care (PHC) system in Brazil and Portugal. This was a comparative cross-sectional study with a nonprobability sample of older people in the PHC in Brazil and Portugal conducted between 2017 and 2018. To evaluate the variables of interest, the socioeconomic data questionnaire, the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Medical Outcomes Short-Form Health Survey were used. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed to test the study hypothesis. The sample consisted of n = 150 participants (Brazil n = 100 and Portugal n = 50). There was a predominance of woman (76.0%, p = 0.224) and individuals between 65 and 80 years (88.0%, p = 0.594). The multivariate association analysis showed that in the presence of depressive symptoms, the QoL mental health domain was most associated with the socioeconomic variables. Among the prominent variables, woman group (p = 0.027), age group 65-80 years (p = 0.042), marital status "without a partner" (p = 0.029), education up to 5 years (p = 0.011) and earning up to 1 minimum wage (p = 0.037) exhibited higher scores among brazilian participants. The portuguese participants showed an association between the general health status domain and woman group (p = 0.042) and education up to 5 years (p = 0.045). The physical functioning domain was associated with income of up to 1 minimum wage (p = 0.037). In these domains, the portuguese participants exhibited higher scores than the brazilian participants. We verified the association between socioeconomic profile and QoL in the presence of depressive symptoms, which occurred mainly among woman, participants with low levels of education and low income, with QoL aspects related to mental, physical and social health and self-perceived health. The group from Brazil had higher QoL scores than the group from Portugal.