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Wednesday, 15 July 2009: 11:05 AM
Learning Objective 1: know characteristcs of a group of Mexican older adults related to life-space mobility
Learning Objective 2: understand the weight of selected variables upon the life space mobility and quality of life of a group of Mexican older adults.
Purpose: Determine the weight of number of chronic diseases, geriatric syndromes and depression upon life space mobility and quality of life a group of Mexican older adults. Methods: Cross sectional design. The sample comprise 135 older adults (111 women and 24 men) selected from a geriatric outpatient clinic from a general hospital. Inclusion criteria were able to hear the voice of the interviewer, articulate well in Spanish, at least 19 points in the Mini Mental State Examination (Spanish version) or 17 points in case of illiteracy. Chronic diseases were obtained from the clinical charts, unrelated to chronic diseases geriatric syndromes were listed to each older adult. The following instruments were read to each older adult: Geriatric Depression Scale, Life Space Assessment used to measure mobility in terms of geographical areas, frequency and assistance needed and the SF-12 that represented quality of life. Results: Mean age was 73.07 (DE = 9.08) years old; years of school 2.64 (DE = 2.64). Number of chronic diseases ranged from 0-6 and of geriatric syndromes ranged from 0-8. Participants older than 71 years, those with more depression, and women had significantly more reduced their life space mobility (p less than = 0.01). Beta coefficients showed that depression (Estandarized Beta -299, p 0.001) and number of chronic diseases (Estandarized Beta -.186, p = 0.028) affected life space mobility of older adults, but geriatric syndromes were not significant (Estandarized Beta -.177, p = 0.018). For quality of life Beta coefficients of depression were (Estandarized Beta -.373, p less than 0.001) whereas chronic diseases were not significant (Estandarized Beta -.088, p = 0.238). Conclusion: Depression weights more than number of chronic diseases upon life space mobility; geriatric syndromes have more weight upon quality of life than depression. Depression needs further exploration in relation to life space mobility.