Sintomatologia depressiva em pessoas idosas no contexto da pandemia da covid-19

Abstract

In the last two years, the world population has been facing the COVID-19 pandemic which has considerably affected the physical condition and mental health of people, especially the elderly. In this circumstance, the elderly are at greater risk of developing adversities that can affect mental health resulting from isolation and social distancing to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, such as depression. Thus, this research aims to evaluate the depressive symptomatology of the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is characterized as being transversal, descriptive and exploratory, with a qualitative and quantitative approach. Data collection was performed online using a form, which contained the following instruments: Sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire; Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15); Subjective question “Briefly describe how you are experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic”. The quantitative results were organized by the SPSS software, being presented through descriptive statistics, while the qualitative results were ordered through the R program using Bardin's content analysis. Participated, in a non-probabilistic way for convenience, 44 elderly people with ages ranging from 60 to 87 years. The sociodemographic profile of the participants was mainly characterized by elderly females who declared themselves to be Catholic. In addition, most participants were from the Brazil Northeast, retired, married, had a low level of education, and had a monthly family income between 1 and 2 minimum wages. It was found that 75% of the elderly had no depression, while 25% had moderate or severe depressive symptoms. The categories found by the content analysis are Negative emotions; Welfare; preventive care; Religious, spiritual, and faith dimension; Not categorizable. Thus, from the prevalence of depressive symptoms observed in 25% of the elderly participants, it is understood that isolation and/or social distancing, although necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic, can have harmful effects on the mental health of the elderly.