Comportamento saudavel em idosos usuarios da atencao basica em saude.

Abstract

Introduction: Findings suggest that the adoption, change and maintenance of healthy behaviors require more than information disclosure and medical recommendations. Biopsychossocial factors may work as barriers to adherence to healthier behaviors, however, they have been underexplored. The objective was to investigate the factors related to the accumulated healthy behavior among older adults attending Primary Health Care. Methods: Cross-sectional analyses with 201 older adults from baseline of Longitudinal Investigation of Functioning Epidemiology (LIFE) were performed in a Southestern Brasilian city. Healthy Behavior Score (HBS), ranging from 0 to 8, was calculated by the sum of the following habits: Physical activity practice, healthy eating, water consumption, night sleep time, not smoking, not drinking alcohol, frequent social relations, and spirituality. A linear multivariate regression was performed to test the influence of biopsychossocial aspects on HBS, with 95% confidence interval. Results: Number of healthy behavior was related to high social support, better cognitive status, less depressive symptoms and lower funcional performance. Additionally, age and resilience score were correlated to healthy behaviors, which were higher among women and those with sufficient income. Multivariate analysis revealed depressive symptoms, functional performance and education as independently predictors of HBS. Conclusion: Depressive symptoms, functional performance and education are predictors of accumulated health behaviors, independently of health status, contextual and sociodemographic aspects. Higher social support contributed to the higher number of healthy behaviors, and should be considered in public health policies for healthy longevity.