Functional disability indicators and associated factors in the elderly: a population-based study in Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Objective: to estimate the prevalence of functional disability in basic and instrumental daily activities and associated factors in elderly who live in the urban area of Bagé-RS, Brazil.

Methods: this is a population-based cross-sectional study, conducted in 2008; functional disability was defined by basic and instrumental daily activities, using Katz index and Lawton and Brody scale; Poisson regression was used for crude and adjusted analyses.

Results: 1,593 elderly individuals were investigated; the prevalence of disability for basic activities was of 10.6% (95%CI: 9.1;12.1) and of 34.2% (95%CI: 31.9;36.6) for instrumental activities; both disabilities were statistically associated to the increment of age, low education level, alcohol consumption, history of cerebrovascular diseases, cognitive impairment, hospitalization and home care.

Conclusion: a high proportion of elderly presented functional disability; the outcomes were associated to the following variables: demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, health status and use of health services.