Qualidade de vida, depressão e suporte social nas mulheres idosas institucionalizadas

Abstract

The low quality of life of institutionalized elderly people is associated to a weak social support and higher scores of depression. The goal of this study was to study if the lack of social support and the presence of depression affect the quality of life of institutionalized elderly women. The sample was composed by 33 elderly women, ranged between 39 and 90 years (M=75.15, S.D.=12.84). Thus, 22 individuals were natural from a rural area (66.7%) and 11 were born in an urban area (33.3%). The participants were from the Nevarte Gulbenkian’s and D. Diogo de Sousa’s home and Centro Social da Paróquia de Vieira do Minho. The used instruments were, beyond a demographic questionnaire, the geriatric depression scale (GDS), the WHOQOL – BREF scale and the social support satisfaction scale (SSSS). The main results of this study show that lower scores of depression are associated with higher values of quality of life and social support, and the participants with no depression present a more positive evaluation of their quality of life and social support satisfaction.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Eleonora C. V. Costa (Supervisor) & Sónia Basto (Co-Supervisor)