[Health state and degree of elderly dependency in a long stay institution].

The study's objective was to identify demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral characteristics, health situation, and the dependency degree of institutionalized elderly. It was an exploratory descriptive study with quantitative approach, which was carried out between 2004 and 2005 in a Long Stay Institution for elderly people (ILPL in Portuguese). The data was collected from 31 people over 60 years of age leaving in the ILPI. Most of these people were from female sex, singles, without children, with high degree of illiteracy. The majority of them present morbidities and a high degree of dependency both forA VDs (Portuguese acronym for Life Daily Activities) and AIVDs (Portuguese acronym for Instrumental Life Daily Activities). These data were considered as determinants of the health conditions and the functional capacity of elderly, which indicates the necessity for the qualification of assistance for this specific public.