Resumen

FERNANDEZ FENTE, Alfonso; TRUJILLO GRAS, Omar  y  MENENDEZ JIMENEZ, Jesús. Prevalencia de discapacidad mental en ancianos del Municipio Playa 1996: (Parte II). Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 1999, vol.25, n.1, pp. 30-38. ISSN 1561-3127.

Mental impairment, closely related to increased life expectancy, is one the most serious problems at present and for the next century. A descriptive study of aged people was carried out in Playa municipality with a view to estimating the prevalence of mental disability of elders living there. To this end, a sample of 968 older people, who lived in the territory from July 1st, 1995 to June 30ht, 1996, was selected by a Multiphase Strativied Sampling. Data was gathered using the Minimental state examination (MSE), Lawton´s index (IL), and a survey with socio-demographic information. Data treatment included point and interval estimation of gross and specific prevalence rates and relative and absolute frequency distributions. A mental disability of 13 % was found (10.2 - 15.7). Memory with 47.4 % and calculation and attention with 44.4 % were the most affected fields. Furthermore, it was observed that this type of disability increases with age and females are predominant (14.9 %) whereas it dicreases with increasing educational level.

Palabras clave : MENTALLY DISABLED PERSONS; LIFE EXPECTANCY; AGED.

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