scholarly journals Investigating the role played by social support in the association between religiosity and mental health in low income older adults: results from the São Paulo Ageing & Health Study (SPAH)

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Augusto Macêdo Corrêa ◽  
Alexander Moreira-Almeida ◽  
Paulo R. Meneze ◽  
Homero Vallada ◽  
Marcia Scazufca

OBJECTIVE: Religiosity has been associated with mental health, especially in the elderly. There is a shortage of studies on the factors that mediate this association, including social support. The aim of this study was to assess the association between the various dimensions of religiosity and the prevalence of common mental disorders among the elderly, and to verify whether social support can work as a mechanism that explains such mediation. METHOD: The sample consisted of an elderly population living in a low income region of the city of São Paulo (N = 1,980). Data on the socio-demographic profile of this population and on the prevalence of common mental disorders were collected, and indicators of religiosity and social support were identified. RESULTS: 90.7% of the sample considered themselves to be religious. In terms of denomination, 66.6% were Catholic. Forty-one per cent attended some kind of religious activity at least once or more times a week. The presence of common mental disorders was not associated with religious affiliation or subjective religiosity. The prevalence of common mental disorders in followers attending religious services was approximately half (OR between 0.43 and 0.55, p < 0.001) compared to those who never attend a religious service. Attending religious services was associated with higher levels of social support. The association between a higher attendance frequency and fewer common mental disorders did not change after the inclusion of relevant of social support variables. CONCLUSION: The study showed that subjects presented high levels of religiosity and that there is a strong association between religious attendance and the prevalence of common mental disorders, which could not be explained by social support.

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Augusto Macêdo Corrêa ◽  
Alexander Moreira-Almeida ◽  
Paulo R. Meneze ◽  
Homero Vallada ◽  
Marcia Scazufca

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itamar S. Santos ◽  
Márcia Scazufca ◽  
Paulo A. Lotufo ◽  
Paulo R. Menezes ◽  
Isabela M. Benseñor

ABSTRACTBackground: Anemia and dementia are common diseases among the elderly, but conflicting data are available regarding an association between these two conditions. We analyzed data from the São Paulo Ageing & Health Study to address the relationship between anemia and dementia.Methods: This cross-sectional observational study included participants aged 65 years and older from a deprived area of the borough of Butantan, São Paulo, Brazil. Data about demographics, education, income, and cognitive and daily life function were collected, as well as blood samples. Anemia and dementia were defined according to WHO and DSM-IV criteria, respectively.Results: Of the 2267 subjects meeting the inclusion criteria, 2072 agreed to participate in the study; of whom 1948 had a valid total blood count and were included in the analysis. Anemia was diagnosed in 203 (10.2%) participants and dementia in 99 (5.1%). The frequency of anemia was higher in patients with dementia according to univariate analysis (odds ratio (OR) = 2.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.17–3.41, p = 0.01), but this association was not present after adjusting for age (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 0.76–2.33, p = 0.32). Further multivariate adjustment did not change the results.Conclusion: Although anemia and dementia are frequent disorders in older people, we found their relationship to be mediated exclusively by aging in this low-income population from São Paulo.


Cephalalgia ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
IM Benseñor ◽  
PA Lotufo ◽  
AC Goulart ◽  
PR Menezes ◽  
M Scazufca

There are scarce data about headache prevalence and its characteristics among elderly people. The aim was to carry out a cross-sectional study to determine the 1-year prevalence of tension-type and migraine headaches in people >65 years old in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. All 1615 people living in the study catchment area who agreed to participate in the study answered a questionnaire based in the International Headache Society criteria. Prevalence (mean and 95% confidence interval) of any type of headache in the last year was 45.6% (43.2, 48.0). Prevalence of tension-type headache in the last year was 33.1% (30.8, 35.4): 28.1% (24.6, 31.6) for men and 36.4% (33.4, 39.4) for women; for migraine headaches, prevalence in the last year was 10.6% (9.1, 12.1): 5.1% (3.4, 6.8) for men and 14.1% (11.9, 16.3) for women. One-year prevalence rates of headaches, and especially of migraine headaches, are very high among the elderly in Brazil.


Author(s):  
Gustavo de Brito Venâncio dos Santos ◽  
Moisés Goldbaum ◽  
Chester Luiz Galvão César ◽  
Reinaldo José Gianini

Maturitas ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 124 ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Joao Valentini Neto ◽  
Regina Mara Fisberg ◽  
Ligia A. Martini ◽  
Sandra Maria Ribeiro

Cephalalgia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabela M Benseñor ◽  
Alessandra C Goulart ◽  
Paulo A Lotufo ◽  
Paulo R Menezes ◽  
Márcia Scazufca

Background: To investigate the association between cardiovascular risk-factor profile and migraine in the elderly, we evaluated a population sample of ageing men and women (65 years or more) living in a low-income area in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Patients and Methods: We investigated migraine status and cardiovascular profile from a baseline of 1450 participants (65–102 years of age) of the São Paulo Ageing & Health Study (SPAH), a longitudinal population-based study with low-income elderly in Brazil. The following age and sex-adjusted cardiovascular risk factors were analyzed: blood pressure, pulse pressure, serum total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, smoking, history of hypertension, diabetes and the 10-year risk of myocardial infarction or coronary heart disease death based on the Framingham Risk Score. Results: The overall prevalence of migraine was 11.4%, and it was 3 times more frequent among women than men (15.3% vs 5.4%; P < 0.0001). Migraineurs were younger than non-migraineurs (mean age 70.6 years vs 72.1 years; P = 0.001, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference regarding the cardiovascular risk-factor profile after adjustment for age and sex among migraineurs and non-migraineurs. Only a decrease in the risk of hypertension among women (OR 0.58; 95% CI 0.38–0.90; P = 0.01) was also observed even after adjustment for age. Conclusions: Overall, we did not find a worse cardiovascular risk profile among elderly migraineurs. An inverse association between hypertension and migraine in women warrants further investigation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Accioly Domingues ◽  
Tiago Nascimento Ordonez ◽  
Thaís Bento Lima-Silva ◽  
Maria Juliana Torres ◽  
Thabata Cruz de Barros ◽  
...  

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