RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The Mexican population is aging, which makes the fact that there is no regional information on the health of the elderly, including those in the northern region of the country. OBJECTIVE: To examine nutritional, functional, and cognitive impairments, as well as depression, in non-institutionalized elderly Mexicans along Mexico's northern border. DESIGN: Observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS: Demographic and anthropometric measurements were screened and the following scales were applied among 760 elderly individuals in Chihuahua, Mexico: Katz index (for activities of daily living, ADL), the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), the Yesavage (depression), and the Pffeifer (cognitive decline). RESULTS: 7% prevalence of malnutrition, a 18% prevalence of functional disability, a 44% prevalence of depressive symptoms, a 33% prevalence of cognitive impairment, and a risk of disease in almost half the population, without differences between genders. Malnutrition, functional disability, and cognitive impairment increased with age (P <0.001). Functional disability, depression, and cognitive impairment also increased the risk of malnutrition 3.0, 2.9 and 1.4 times (P <0.005). Other factors that may affect nutritional status included isolated living and illiteracy. CONCLUSION: Levels of malnutrition, functional disability, depression and cognitive impairment are higher than those reported previously and are closely related to one another, so detecting alterations in primary care is important in order to improve quality of life and reduce complications.
Assuntos
Atividades Cotidianas , Transtornos Cognitivos/complicações , Depressão/complicações , Avaliação Geriátrica , Desnutrição/etiologia , Avaliação Nutricional , Estado Nutricional , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Transtornos Cognitivos/epidemiologia , Estudos Transversais , Depressão/epidemiologia , Escolaridade , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Desnutrição/epidemiologia , México/epidemiologia , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Prevalência , Fatores de Risco , Isolamento Social , Estados UnidosRESUMO
Currently, there are indications for determining hyperhomocysteinemia in adulthood as risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, psychiatric disorders, pregnancy complications, birth defects, cognitive impairment in the elderly, in addition to cancer. If hyperhomocysteinemia is determined from childhood, it may be modulated with the provision of an opportunity for public health intervention. The objective of this descriptive study was to determine total homocysteine (tHcy) levels in healthy children from the Monterrey metropolitan area in Mexico. In a peripheral-blood sample collected from 56 healthy children aged 2-10 years, we determined tHcy concentration by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The geometric mean +/- SD was 9.78 +/- 1.73 micromol/l. tHcys of the children studied were homogeneous by age cohort and gender. Nutritional state was classified by body mass index (BMI). Sixty five percent of children who participated in the study had normal BMI, and 96% of the children belong to the low socioeconomic status. In conclusion, to our knowledge this is the first-ever information on homocysteine (Hcy) prevalence in a population of healthy Mexican children. tHcy concentration was higher than that reported in other populations studies. This preliminary study could constitute the baseline for future public health studies.