Social problems frequency in elderly: A comparative study in hospital outpatient population of Lima-Callao and high Andean Peruvian communities

OBJECTIVE: To determine the factors associated to socio-family problems in the study populations of CEMENA Frailty Study (urban population of Lima-Callao ambulatory assisted in a hospital of high complexity) and of the study Andes Frail (in populations of Los Andes of Peruvian high Andean communities). MATERIALS AND METHODS: An observational, analytical cross-sectional study was conducted using the CEMENA Frailty Study and the Andes Frail Study data. The main variable was “social problems” measured with Social Familial Gijon Scale with a score greater than 10; the statistical analysis was performed with Poisson regression. RESULTS: The sample size was 2119 participants. We found a frequency of social problems measured with Gijon Scale of 40.4% (n = 856), factors associated to the main variable were age, living alone and sex. The most frequent age groups were 71 to 80 years (45.2%, n = 958), and older than 80 years old (33.7%, n = 715); the sample had male gender in 54.9% (n = 1661) and 15.4% (n = 328) reported living alone. CONCLUSIONS: Being at the age between 71 and 80 years, male gender, and living alone increase the risk to suffer social problems in elderly of high Andean communities and elderly of Lima-Callao, treated in geriatrics services, although factors associated to each population varies independently.