Mental health and quality of life in older adults: Systemic review

Abstract

Introduction: Currently the number of people over 60 years of age is the fastes growing age segment worldwide, which represents a great challenge for public health Objective: Identify through scientific evidence, the existence of a relationship betwee mental health disorders and the quality of life of older adults. Method: The researc was carried out through a systematic review, in January 2020, in the bibliographi databases MEDLINE, LILACS, CINAHL and ScIELO, using the descriptors "aged" "elderly", "aged, 80 and over", "mental health "," Dementia "," depression "," alzheime disease "," quality of life "," WHOQOL-BREE "," WHOQOL-BREF "," WHOQOL OLD "," SF-12 "," SF-36 ", "NdF", "geriatric depression scale" and "mental healt scales". Results: Of the 1,231 articles located, 15 were included in the analysis. A statistical association between the risk of depression and impaired quality of life wa demonstrated in 4 studies. However, a study showed that the population of older adult had a quality of life defined as medium or high, despite 31.1% of this population havin mental disorders such as stress, depression or anxiety. Conclusions: To assess th quality of life and mental health, an increase in publications in the last 3 years i evident. The instruments used were various scales or questionnaires. Several factor that positively or negatively affect the relationship between mental health and qualit of life of older adults were identified.