Functional capacity to perform activities of daily living among older persons living in rural areas registered in the Family Health Strategy/ Capacidade funcional para atividades da vida diaria de idosos da Estrategia de Saude da Familia da zona rural

This article describes the socioeconomic profile and functional capacity of older persons living in rural areas in the Municipality of Pelotas-RS, Brazil based on the following sociodemographic characteristics: age, sex, income, schooling and chronic diseases. A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted between July and October 2014 using a sample of 820 older persons. We used the Pearson chi square test of homogeneity for nominal variables and the test for trend for ordinal variables. The majority of the sample was made up of women aged, 60-69 years, who were white and living with a partner. With regard to functional capacity to perform basic activities of daily living (BADL), 81.8% of individuals were classified as independent, while 54.6% were deemed completely independent for performing instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Variables such as sex (male), age (60-69 years age group) and not having any heart problems were closely associated with the ability to perform BADL, while the ability to perform IADL was associated with age (60-69 years age group), income (1-2 salaries), education (5-8 years), and no osteoporosis. The majority of the people assessed by this study were able to perform both basic and instrumental activities of daily living. Key words Primary Health Care, Health of the elderly, Rural population, Family health O artigo objetivou descrever o perfil dos idosos da zona rural de Pelotas, considerando a prevalencia de capacidade funcional para as atividades basicas e instrumentais da vida diaria segundo idade, sexo, renda, escolaridade e doencas cronicas nao transmissiveis. Estudo quantitativo, transversal e analitico, realizado com 820 idosos, de julho a outubro de 2014. Utilizou-se o teste de qui-quadrado de heterogeneidade de Pearson para as exposicoes nominais e o teste de tendencia para aquelas ordinais. Na amostra predominaram as mulheres, entre 60-69 anos, que se autodenominaram brancas e viviam com seus companheiros. A prevalencia de capacidade para as atividades basicas da vida diaria (ABVD) foi de 81,8% e para as instrumentais da vida diaria (AIVD) 54,6%. As variaveis sexo (masculino), idade (60-69) e nao ter problemas cardiacos foram associadas de forma significativa com as ABVD. Ja, as AIVD apresentaram associacao com idade (60-69 anos), anos de escolaridade (5-8), renda (1-2 salarios) e osteoporose. O estudo conclui que os idosos, na maioria, eram funcionalmente capazes para a realizacao das atividades da vida di