General health of elderly institutionalised and community-dwelling Brazilians.

Objective: To evaluate the heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose and other important indicators of the general health of an elderly population of São José dos Campos, Brazil.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 institutionalised and 150 community-dwelling individuals aged 60 years or more. The parameters evaluated were heart rate, blood pressure and blood glucose. The elderly also answered a questionnaire about osteoporosis, falls, physical exercising, participation in social events, type of foods ingested, Alzheimer and Parkinson's diseases and medication.

Results: The institutionalised elderly showed an average heart rate of 75.1, while that of the community-dwelling elderly was 76.7. The percentage of systolic hypertension in the institutionalised and community-dwelling groups was 36% and 30% respectively, while diastolic hypertension showed a percentage of 40% and 57%, and diabetes was 32% and 30%. Among the institutionalised and community-dwelling groups, 13.3% and 21.3% respectively, reported osteoporosis, 31.3% and 42.7% falls, 7.3% and 24% exercised regularly, 4% and 69.3% participated regularly in social events, 58.7% and 51.3% reported eating solid foods, and 13.3% and 2%, respectively, suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Parkinson's disease was reported by 2% in both groups. The institutionalised elderly reported taking an average of 3.2 medications, while among community-dwelling elderly this number was 1.8.

Conclusion: The entire sample presented a high prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and osteoporosis. No significant differences were found in the systemic health of the elderly institutionalised and community-dwelling groups. However, the latter group reported more frequent falls, participation in social events and exercised regularly.