Hypothetical relationships between social determinants of health that influence on obesity in the elderly

The high prevalence rates of obesity in elderly raise the need to understand the factors involved in this nutritional disorder using quantitative methods that allow a relational analysis of these determinants. This study aimed to propose a hypothetical model to establish the relationship between the social determinants of health associated with obesity in elderly. For construction of the hypothetical model were delineated latent and observed variables according to the analysis of 45 national and international papers in reference of Structural Equation Modeling. It was constructed a representative diagram to show the correlations between the eleven social of health related to obesity in the elderly: physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary, social contact, occupation, income, education, age, sex and marital status. It is expected that the hypothetical relationships (established in this study contribute to the understanding of the relationships of factors involved in this context for the development of strategies for the health of the elderly.