Original article Sociodemographic profile and health condition of elderly patients attended at a community primary health center Fernanda Borges Carlucio da Silva a , Rosangela Filipini a , Ana Paula Guarnieri a , Nathalia Grangeiro Vieira a , Andrea Bonvini a , Beatriz da Costa Aguiar Alves a , Ligia Ajaime Azzalis b , Virginia Junqueira b , Fernando Luiz Affonso Fonseca a, b, * a Departamento de Enfermagem e Nutriç~ ao, Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Santo Andr e, S~ ao Paulo, Brazil b Instituto de Ci^ encias Ambientais, Químicas e Farmac^ euticas, Universidade Federal de S~ ao Paulo, Diadema, S~ ao Paulo, Brazil article info Article history: Received 2 September 2015 Received in revised form 6 February 2016 Accepted 22 March 2016 Keywords: elderly health conditions sociodemographic profile abstract Background/Purpose: The world has gradually been turning eyes to the elderly population due to the increased life expectancy. This study aimed to trace the sociodemographic profile and to analyze health conditions among elderly individuals. Methods: A transversal retrospective study was performed. Data were obtained using an administered questionnaire on sociodemographic and clinical features, diseases reported by the studied population, daily activities, and laboratory test results gathered from patients' medical records. Results: In this study, 66.2% of the total patients were female; 74% had 4 years of primary education with a family income of up to three Brazilian minimum wages; 64.6% were retired; 27.8% had one or more morbidities. As much as 33.4% of the patients showed no difficulty in performing daily activities. Conclusion: Understanding the profile of the senior population is of utmost importance so that public health programs may be carried out to meet the needs of these individuals. Copyright © 2016, Asia Pacific League of Clinical Gerontology & Geriatrics. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction The World Health Organization classifies the age of the elderly population according to the country's socioeconomic level. In developing countries, people are considered elderly from the age of 60 years, whereas in developed countries, it is from the age of 65 years. 1 In 2012, the world's senior population represented 810 million people, accounting for 11.5% of the global population, and this number is expected to exceed 2 billion by 2050. 2,3 In Brazil, the drop in mortality rates in the beginning of the 40s, along with the reduction of fertility rates by the end of the 60s, triggered the process of age-structure transition, resulting in an increase of the elderly population from 3.1% in 1970 to 5.5% in 2000. By contrast, the rate of children younger than 5 years was reduced from 15% to 11% over the same period. 4 In 2011, the elderly popu- lation totaled 23.5 million in Brazil, and the number of children up to 4 years of age dropped to 13.3 million. 2 This change in age structure has made the existing scenario rather more complex. In addition to the general lack of resources, there are two age groups, namely, young and old, that demand specific programs and public fund support as well as ability, man- agement, creativity, and innovation capacity to administer scarcity from the part of managers. 2 Population aging can be translated as a higher burden of dis- eases, a higher number of incapacities, and an increased use of health services. Hospitalizations are more frequent and bed occu- pancy rate is higher than in other age groups. 5 The implicit risk of hospitalizations can be irreparable. A major incidence of depression, malnutrition, reduction in cognitive and functional ability, along with the development of other comorbid- ities, can be observed in this population group. 6 However, chronic diseases and their impairments are not inevi- table consequences of aging. Effective prevention can take place no matter at what stage of life an individual is in. 5 Brazilian senior citizens fear violence and lack of medical assistance and hospitals, and they have to live on low pensions with few leisure options. 7 During the aging process, several anatomic and functional al- terations occur. Many of these changes are gradual, and reductions * Corresponding author. Instituto de Ci^ encias Ambientais, Químicas e Farm- ac^ euticas, Universidade Federal de S~ ao Paulo, Diadema, S~ ao Paulo, Brazil. E-mail address: proferfonseca@gmail.com (F.L. Affonso Fonseca). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Clinical Gerontology & Geriatrics journal homepage: www.e-jcgg.com http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcgg.2016.03.003 2210-8335/Copyright © 2016, Asia Pacific League of Clinical Gerontology & Geriatrics. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Journal of Clinical Gerontology & Geriatrics 7 (2016) 93e98