[Psychosocial problems in the elderly in Rotterdam and point of departure for prevention]

The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence of psycho-social problems among the elderly in order to plan prevention-programs. A questionnaire was sent in 1990 to a sample of 1989 inhabitants of the city of Rotterdam aged 65-79 years living on their own, drawn at random from the municipal registrar's office (response 58%). The results show that one third of the respondents experiences psycho-social problems. Groups at risk are: women, men who live alone, those with a low socio-economic status, people who live on their own but receive limited support from institutions. These socio-demographic variables explain only 5% of the variance in psycho-social well-being. Risk-indicators for psycho-social problems are problems in the performance of activities of daily living (ADL) and household-activities (HHA) as well as decreased social support. The relationship between satisfaction with living environment and psycho-social problems is affected by these risk-indicators. Elderly experiencing only psycho-social problems and those experiencing only ADL/HHA-problems visited their general practitioner during the last three months just frequently. Elderly experiencing both psycho-social and ADL/HHA-problems most frequently visited their GP. More elderly in Rotterdam compared to elderly in some other Dutch cities and to normscores seem to have psycho-social problems.