Associação entre consumo alimentar, depressão e excesso de peso em idosos : um panorama segundo a Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde de 2019

Abstract

The present study was carried out with the aim of understanding how the consequent change in physical, socioeconomic and dietary factors that occur during aging af ect the mental state of elderly people (over 60 years old). In the study, data was collected from the performance of a cross-sectional study using a secondary database from the Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde (PNS) that included sociodemographic variables such as sex, age, education and source of income, in addition to self-reported depression and food consumption. The research utilized healthy and unhealthy markers in addition to the description of the characteristics of study participants through the distribution of relative frequency for categorical variables and the calculation of mean and standard deviation for continuous variables.The results showed that the highest percentage of elderly people corresponds to the retired [income of 3 to 4 minimum wages] low education population [no instruction or incomplete primary education]. Most overweight seniors had depression. They had low consumption of ultra-processed foods and, regardless of depression, there were no significant dif erences in consumption. In conclusion, depression did not influence harmful changes in eating habits. Thus, the recognition of these individuals' eating habits and behaviors by professional nutritionists allows them to develop a better relationship between the psychological and food spheres so that they can maintain healthy and balanced habits while respecting their individualities.