Social factors of fragility in elderly people

Abstract

Introduction Fragility is a clinical condition, associated with the pathological aging process, and represents a major risk in the occurrence of chronic non-communicable diseases and is closely related to functional disability and comorbidities, with the coexistence of these in 21.5% of the elderly. In case of people over 65, fragility is caused by many factors, some of which are social, which affect the quality and length of life that contributes to disability and polypathology. In societies where is a high unemployment rate, there are no opportunities to use the workforce of those elderly people who maintain their physical and mental potential at an acceptable level and can occasionally perform various activities. Also, the third age is characterized by a drastic restriction of social and professional roles, as well as by a massive presence of degenerative diseases, which reduce the mobility of the individual and increase the risk of his dependence on family and society. A frequent sign of old age is the loneliness, both physically and psychologically. Another widespread social phenomenon in contemporary society is violence, in front of which older people become one of the most vulnerable categories of the population. Purpose Evaluation of the widespread social factors in fragility syndrome of elderly patients in the geriatric ward. Material and methods The retrospective study included 410 electronic files (https://www.ams.md/siaams_scms/) in 2018 of patients aged over 65 years, the average being 71.11 ± 0.29 years. The female sex constituted 60%, and the male 40% of cases, hospitalized in the geriatric ward. The social factors of fragility included the loneliness of the elderly, employment, violence, isolation and income. The variables were expressed as number or percentage and arithmetic mean. Results The results of the evaluation of the social situation of the elderly in the study revealed the fragility syndrome - 28.29% of cases; the share of loneliness of the elderly of 34.14% of cases, the elderly living with one of the spouses - 49.75% of cases, with one of the parents - 1.46% and with the children's family - 17.80% of elderly patients. At the same time, the share of family isolated elderly people was established - 8.78% of cases and socially isolated elderly people - 7.07% of cases. In this study was established a percentage of the elderly who are subjected to violence, thus, domestic violence reported 2.19% of the elderly, physical violence - 0.73% of cases, moral violence - 3.17% of cases and violence outside the family - 4.14% of cases. The situation in relation to the elderly employed in the field of work was determined a percentage of 6.58% of elderly people over 65 years of age, employed in the field of work. At the same time, the monthly incomes of the elderly were evaluated, thus, the patients declared an average income of 1579.451 ± 38.04 lei. Beneficiaries of social service was 4.46% of elderly patients. Conclusions Aging causes a change in social lifestyle. The most common social factors are non-beneficiaries of social services (95.54%), unemployment (93.42%), loneliness (34.14%), violence (10.23%), which significantly alter the quality of life, which has important consequences in terms of social protection and health care for the elderly and increases the need for social services.