Self concept of health of elderly living with relatives

OBJECTIVES: Describe self-rated health and associated factors in elderly living with relatives and identify their socioeconomic and health characteristics. METHODOLOGY: This is a descriptive study, with a quantitative approach performed with 191 elderly aged over 60 years, assisted by the Family Health Strategy in a municipality of the state of Bahia, Brazil. A questionnaire was applied to collect data containing questions about social and demographic aspects, functional health evaluation, self-reported chronic conditions and self-rated health. The analyses were based on descriptive and inferential statistics, using the Chi-square test. RESULTS: It was observed a predominance of women (62.8%), with more than 70 years (61.3%), married (50.8%) and children (92.7%). They were satisfied with the family arrangement in which they live (96.6%), with the life they have (85.8%) and believe living with relatives is advantageous for them and the family (79.4%). Showed negative self-perception of health (59.1%) and independence in performing basic activities of daily living (94.2%). No need assistance for activities of daily living and have at least one chronic disease (87.4%), and hypertension (70.7%) was the most prevalent disease. Factors associated with self-rated health were: " level of help for IADL", "chronic diseases", "hypertension", "heart disease" "rheumatism", "disease" column and "diabetes." CONCLUSION: It was observed that the majority of the population has a negative self-perception of health, the existence of associated chronic diseases. Although subjective, self-rated health of an individual is an important tool for knowing the global situation and the impact this generates the physical, social and mental well-being.