Reduced functional capacity of community-dwelling elderly: a longitudinal study

This study aimed to identify the incidence and risk factors for the reduced functional capacity of community-dwelling elderly. A prospective, two-stage cohort study was conducted in 2011 and 2014. The study population consisted of 202 initially independent older adults for the basic activities of daily living. The relative risk (RR) and its respective 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used as a measure of association and were estimated by log-binomial regression with robust variance. The incidence of lower functional capacity was 15.3%. The risk factors for the functional decline were unmarried status (RRadj = 2.75; 95%CI: 1.15-6.57) and depressive symptoms (RRadj = 2.41; 95%CI: 1.15-5.06), even after adjusting for gender, age group, per capita household income, diabetes, use of medication and level of physical activity. The high incidence of reduced functional capacity and its association with marital status and mental health aspects reveals the need to consider such factors in the planning of health actions aimed at maintaining and restoring the functional capacity of the seniors.