Life quality, social support and fragility in seniors attended at social assistance reference center

• Grant number: 18/24416-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2019
• End date: November 30, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Welfare Services - Applied Welfare Service
• Principal Investigator: Marisa Silvana Zazzetta
• Grantee: Larissa Cayla Cesário
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Aging, in concomitance with fragility, can overwhelm Health and Social Assistance Systems whose target audience is elderly. Evaluating elderly people in a context of social vulnerability contributes with data for decision making and improvement of actions and proposals of the equipments that serve these people. Objective: to analyze the fragility of elderly people living in neighborhoods with social vulnerability and enrolled in a Social Assistance Reference Center in relation to quality of life, cognition, health perception, family and social relations in a city in the interior of the State of São Paulo - Brazil. Methods: observational, analytical study using the quantitative-qualitative method of research and making use of the following techniques: observation, semi-structured interview with the application of instruments for the evaluation and screening of health and psychosocial conditions of the elderly. The instruments will be: The Edmonton Frail Scale to evaluate frailty; World Health Organization Quality of Life - Bref (WHOQOL-Bref) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life - Old Module (WHOQOL-Old) to check quality of life; The Montreal Cognitive Assessment to track cognitive impairment; Genogram, Ecomap and Medical Outcomes Study to check network and social support. Quantitative data will be analyzed through descriptive statistics with the preparation of frequency tables, and measures of position and dispersion. For comparison between groups will be used the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, Pearson's chi-square test, or Fisher's exact test for comparison of categorical variables. Qualitative data will be analyzed using the content analysis method. Hypothesis: It is hoped that the development of this project makes it possible to offer advances in knowledge about the influence of social factors on frail elderly people and their families.