Associação entre o risco de quedas, sintomas depressivos e níveis plasmáticos da interleucina 6 e do fator neurotrófico derivado do cérebro em idosos da comunidade

Abstract

Introduction: Increases in life expectancy and number of elderly in the population are accompanied by higher prevalence and incidence of chronic degenerative diseases, as well as changes in the immune system. Among the conditions highlighted in the studies of aging are depression, falls and biomarkers, such as Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and Interleuk-6 (IL6). Evidence indicates that, with aging and in the presence of depression, there is a change in plasma levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and it has recently been hypothesized that falls may be related the change in biomarkers, since changes in IL-6 and BDNF concentrations are associated with known risk factors for falls. The identification of markers that may signal a risk for falls may contribute to the early detection of the population at risk and a better approach to the health of the elderly. Objective: To verify the association between depressive symptoms and risk of falls in community-based elderly in the baseline and to analyze whether depressive symptomatology and levels of IL-6 and BDNF are predictors of the risk of falls in the elderly after 12 months of follow-up. Methodology: This is an observational, longitudinal, population-based study composed of elderly people assigned to the Family Health Strategy of Alfenas / MG. Sociodemographic and clinical data were obtained through a structured questionnaire; the presence of depressive symptoms by the Geriatric Depression Scale 15 items (GDS) and the risk of falls by QuickScreen®. The Mann Whitney and Chi-square test were used to compare the risk of falls among elderly people with positive and negative screening for depression; linear regression was used to assess the ability of depressive symptoms, IL-6 and BNF to predict a greater risk for falls at one-year follow-up. (p <0.05), the model was adjusted for age, sex, multimorbity and polypharmacy. Study approved by the Ethics and Research Committee, Opinion 722.155. Results: At the baseline, 496 elderly and 350 were included in the follow-up of one year. There was a significant difference in the risk of falls among elderly individuals with positive screening for depression (p <0.001). The biomarkers were not able to predict the risk for one-year segment falls, nor when adjusted for confounding factors, and for the presence of depressive symptoms (p 0.0039 R2 0.2027). Conclusion: The results of this studyindicated a higher risk of falls in the elderly with a positive screening for depression, an association between these variables, and the presence of depressive symptoms was able to predict a greater risk for fallsin the one-year follow-up. Interleukin-6 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor were not able to predict the risk of falls at a one-year follow-up.