Xavier Flávio M F, Ferraz Marcos P T, Marc Norton, Escosteguy Norma U, Moriguchi Emílio H
Geriatric neuropsychiatric ambulatory (ANPEG) of the Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology of the Catholic University of the state of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Braz J Psychiatry. 2003 Mar;25(1):31-9. doi: 10.1590/s1516-44462003000100007.
Senescence for some elderly people is a phase of with development and satisfaction, whereas for others is a negative stage of life. The determinants of a good quality of life in old age vary from person to person. The aims of this study were to identify 1) the prevalence of octogenarian people who evaluate their current life as being mainly characterized by a positive quality and 2) which were the domains that they identified as being the determinants of this positive quality. A same parallel study was conducted with subjects who evaluated senescence as a preponderantly negative experience.
A random and representative sample of 35% of the octogenarian people, living residing in the community, was selected among the dwellers of the city of Veranópolis, state of Rio Grande do Sul. A semi-structured questionnaire on quality of life quality was applied as well as the scale of depressive symptoms Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the index of general health Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS).
Slightly more than half of the studied sample (57%) defined their current quality of life with positive evaluations, whereas 18% presented a negative evaluation of it. A group 0f 25% defined their current lives as neutral or having both values (positive and negative). Those who were dissatisfied presented more health problems according to the CIRS and more depressive symptoms when evaluated by the GDS. Satisfied subjects ones had different reasons to justify this state, however, the dissatisfied had mainly the lack of health as a reason for their suffering. The main source of reported daily well-being was the involvement with rural or domestic activities. Among the interviewed, lack of health was the main source for not presenting well-being, although there was interpersonal variability regarding what each subject considered as loss of health.
Possibly, for the elderly subjects a negative quality of life is equivalent to loss of health and a positive life quality is equivalent to a greater range of categories such as activity, income, social life and relationship with the family, categories which differed from subject to subject. Therefore, health seems to be a good indicator of negative quality of life, though an insufficient indicator of successful elderliness.
衰老对一些老年人来说是一个发展与满足的阶段，而对另一些人来说则是人生的消极阶段。老年生活质量的决定因素因人而异。本研究的目的是确定：1）将当前生活评价为主要具有积极品质的八旬老人的患病率；2）他们认为是这种积极品质决定因素的领域。对将衰老评价为主要是消极经历的受试者进行了一项平行研究。
从南里奥格兰德州维拉诺波利斯市的居民中，随机抽取35%具有代表性的社区八旬老人样本。应用了一份关于生活质量的半结构化问卷，以及抑郁症状量表老年抑郁量表（GDS）和总体健康指数累积疾病评定量表（CIRS）。
略多于一半的研究样本（57%）对其当前生活质量给出了积极评价，而18%给出了消极评价。25%的人将他们当前的生活定义为中性或具有正负两种评价。根据CIRS，不满意的人存在更多健康问题，通过GDS评估时存在更多抑郁症状。满意的受试者有不同的理由来解释这种状态，然而，不满意的人主要以健康不佳作为痛苦的原因。报告的日常幸福感的主要来源是参与农村或家庭活动。在受访者中，健康不佳是缺乏幸福感的主要原因，尽管每个受试者对健康丧失的看法存在个体差异。
对于老年受试者来说，消极的生活质量可能等同于健康丧失，而积极的生活质量可能等同于更广泛的类别，如活动、收入、社交生活和与家庭的关系，这些类别因人而异。因此，健康似乎是消极生活质量的一个良好指标，尽管不是成功老龄化的充分指标。
