Functional disability inside and outside of home of older adults aged 75 years and older: differences between males and females

Abstract

Introduction: Gender is an important factor to take into consideration as it influences the social and intellectual opportunities in lifespan. Objective: To verify factors associated with dependence, inside and outside the home, in elderly people aged 75 or over, with emphasis on the difference between the sexes. Methodology: A cross-sectional study with data from the FIBRA Study. The functional disability of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (ADL) were divided into activities performed inside the home (using the telephone, handling medications, housekeeping and preparing food) and those performed outside the home (shopping, using transportation and handling finances).  The independente variables included  Sociodemographic and healthy aspects.  Multiple Poisson regression models in order to estimate the dependence prevalence ratios inside and outside the home for each gender Prevalence Ratio was calculated  to verify associations with dependence inside and outside of home. Results: The sample included 804 older people. Inside the home, there were no factors associated with dependence for male. For female, however, the factors associated with dependence were frailty (PR = 1.99; 95% CI: 1.26-3.15) and being 80 or older (PR = 1.41; 95% CI: 1.05-1.89). For dependence outside the home, frailty stood out as a factor associated with both sex: male (PR = 2.80 95% CI: 1.17-6.64) and female (PR = 1.98 95% CI: 1.24-3.17). Conclusions: For females, older age and frailty stood out as factors associated with dependence inside the home and outside the home. For males, the frailty was the only factor associated with dependence outside the home achieving a prevalence ratio higher than females.