Sintomas depressivos e medo da covid-19 em pessoas idosas cadastradas na atenção primária à saúde: um estudo seccional

Abstract

Introduction: The health of the elderly, possibly weakened by the aging process, may have been greatly compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a period marked by constant fear and instability in the context of the global crisis, can have a negative impact on the emotional state and mental health, giving rise to new health problems or enhancing pre-existing conditions. In order to mitigate complications inherent to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to understand such changes and associated factors, in order to direct health care actions for this population. Objective: To verify the presence of an association between depressive symptoms and fear of COVID-19 in elderly people enrolled in the APS. Method: This is an epidemiological, observational and cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of elderly people, drawn from the database of different Family Health Strategies (ESF) in Alfenas-MG. Through telephone contact and with consent to participate (electronic or recorded audio), an interview was conducted to respond to the multidimensional structured questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and fear of COVID-19 by the COVID-19 Fear Scale. The association between depressive symptoms and fear of COVID-19 was established using multiple linear regression models, adopting a significance level of 0.05.Results: 179 elderly people with a mean age of 69±6.3 years were interviewed, the majority being female (68.8%), white (66.9%), predominantly with low education (70.2) and low income (76.4%). The prevalence of COVID-19 was 22.9%, but only 5.1% were hospitalized. 48.0% of participants reported a decrease in the frequency of communication, 62.6% reported almost never having company during the pandemic, while 34.8% said they had difficulty obtaining medical care and 19.1% difficulty obtaining food during the pandemic. pandemic. The multiple linear regression model, without including the depressive symptoms variable, explained approximately 38.7% of the variability in fear of COVID-19, including five predictor variables from the initial regression model. The final

model, including the depressive symptoms variable, enabled the prediction of fear of COVID- 19 based on the interaction of the same explanatory variables of the previous model, plus

depressive symptoms. By this model, approximately 44.5% of the variability in fear of COVID- 19 was explained by the predictors: depressive symptoms (21.7%), care/prevention actions

(9.2%), decreased communication (5.9 %), difficulty obtaining food (4.1%), pain in the last seven days (3.4%) and number of people who contribute to income (2.2%). The inclusion of the depressive symptoms variable in the final multiple linear regression model increased the model's predictive capacity by approximately 6% and improved its fit, independently associating it with fear of COVID-19.Conclusion: Depressive symptoms are significantly and independently associated with fear of COVID-19 in elderly people linked to PHC.