Abstract

PATRAO, Ana Luísa; ALVES, Vicente Paulo  and  SOUSA NEIVA, Tiago. The influence of self-perceived health status, social support and depression on self-efficacy among Brazilian elderly people. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2019, vol.36, n.1, pp.23-32. ISSN 1668-7027.

The aim of this study was to identify the psychosocial predictors of general self-efficacy in a sample of Brazilian elderly people. Self-efficacy has been reported as a variable of great importance for elderly people's health. Among them, higher self-efficacy levels are associated with lower inability, psychological distress, depressive symptoms, good perceived health and higher pain adjustment. One hundred and fortyfour patients participated in this study. They were all patients of the Health Basic Unit at Granja do Torto (Brasília, Brazil). The sample is consecutive. The data were collected through a questionnaire that included sociodemographic questions (colour, age, education, marital status,occupational situation and number of people of other generations that you live with) and scales for the studied psychosocial dimensions (self-perceived health status, social support, depression, and general self-efficacy). The sample ismostly (58.3%) constituted by women. The ave-rage age is 69.3 years old (SD= 6.61), with par-ticipants being from 60 to 89 years old. The ma-jority were white and brown people, with lessthan 8 years of education; they have a stable partner, live with family members of another generation, and do not work (they are retired). Self-perceived health status, social support and depression explained 37.2% of variance (∆F(3,140) = 29.20, p = .000). The participants who had a higher level of perceived social support (β = .25), a positive self-perceived health status(β = .30) and lower levels of depression (β = -.28) had higher levels of general self-efficacy. Future interventions under the scope of health promotion in elderly people must consider these determinants in order to increase their efficacy. It is very important to promote community actions that help elderly people to decrease depression levels and increase levels of positive self-perceived health status and perceived social support. Thus, we will contribute to self-efficacy increase in elderly people, an extremely important variable in health and well-being among this specific population.

Keywords : Self-efficacy; Psychosocial Predictors; Elderly People.

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