A solidão como fator de risco para a depressão, na terceira idade

Abstract

According to Hawkley et al (2008;Savikko, Routasalo, Tilvis, Strandberg & Pitkala 2005, cit. in Cacioppo, Hawkley & Thisted, 2010) there are plenty of situational factors that increase the risk of loneliness on the most elderly people, factors that associated to continuous loses, to physical decline, and to the presence of disabilities propitiate, simultaneously, depression on elderly people (Ballone, 2002, Cit. in Martins, 2008), being this the most frequent psychic alteration at this age group: two in each three seniors that go to the external psychic appointment have depression (Mirchandani (1991, cit. in Martins, 2008). Loneliness, on the other hand, has been associated to several physical and psychic diseases (depression and anxiety) (DiTomaso & Spinner (1997, cit. in Fernandes & Neto, 2009), existing several studies that point loneliness as a risk fator to morbidity and mortality (Luo, Hawkley, C, Waite & Cacioppo, 2012). Therefore, and having as base the bibliographic review, the objetive of this study was to investigate in what dimension loneliness would be a risk fator to depression in third age. The sample is constituted by 100 isolated seniors, referenced by the GNR and the district of Braga, of both genders, with a total of 77 women (77%) and 23 men (23%). For the data collection, and once what we pretend to evaluate is loneliness and depression in third age and in what point there is a relation between both, the chosen instruments were the sociodemographic survey, which allowed making an individual characterization of the participants. Next the Scale of Loneliness (UCLA), which has evaluated loneliness distinguishing it of other constructs and, finally, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) that has specifically evaluated the depressive symptomatology. The results of the present study revealed a significant relation between the feelings of loneliness and depression and that the seniors that live alone have levels of loneliness statistically superiors to those who don’t live by themselves. The sociodemographic variant showed influence on depression, but not on loneliness.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Carlos Major (Supervisor)