The performance of elderly's occupational roles with and without depressive symptoms in geriatric monitoring

The study aimed to assess if the presence of depressive symptoms could influence the performance of occupational roles in elderly patients in a Geriatric outpatient clinic within a tertiary public hospital. It is a cross-sectional study, comparing groups, and quantitative approach with convenience sampling. Sociodemographic and clinical data based on medical record review and provided by participants were considered, and the instruments Mini Mental State Examination, Geriatric Depression Scale-15, and Occupational Roles ID List were applied. The results showed homogeneity between the groups in terms of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, and performance of occupational roles, except for the roles of Volunteer and Domestic Services. There were changes in performance between past and present times, with high loss of roles associated with aging and not necessarily depressive symptoms. However, elderly without depressive symptoms group had greater continuity in the Domestic Service role performance, and greater intention to resume the Voluntary role in the future, which was not observed in the group with depressive symptoms. Data shows that the group without depressive symptoms presented best performance for Domestic Service and Volunteer roles, but no difference between groups for the performance standard of other occupational roles.