[The elderly with cognitive alterations in the context of poverty: a study of the social support network]

The objective of this study was to analyze the structure and role of social support networks for the elderly with cognitive alterations, who lived in a context of high or very high social vulnerability, and identify the associations between the characteristics of the networks and functional capacity. The participants were 38 aged individuals living in a context of high or very high social vulnerability whose score on the Mini-Mental State Examination was below the cut-off point. All ethical considerations were observed. The following were administered: Mini-Mental State Examination, Convoy of Social Support, Katz Index, and Pfeffer Questionnaire. The results show that the elderly participants have a large social network, with most members in their inner circle, but only a few of the members play functional roles. A correlation was observed between the gender variable and the number of social network members. No significant correlation was observed between network characteristics and the functional capacity of the elderly.