Prevalence of Mental Disorder in Adults and Elderly

Abstract

These functional loses can be quantified at the population level by multiplying the prevalence of those disorders by the average level of disability associated with them, it is estimated that 50 million years of life are lost because of these disabling morbidities. It is a cross-sectional and descriptive epidemiological research. The sample consisted of 1356 individuals. For the evaluation on mental disorders - stress, anxiety and depression - BECK’s inventory and Lipp’s stress questionnaire were utilized. It was verified that adults are more stressed (64.5%) than the elderly (60.1%). Regarding the anxiety and depression levels, adults had higher diagnostic numbers, with 27% and 17,8%, respectively, against 24,9% and 16,4% among the elderly. With high global prevalence, being considered a public health problem. It’s worth pointing out that in our finding, the highest prevalence was of stress in adult population, however, it was verified in data analysis a linearity in relation to the proportions between adults and the elderly, leading to the understanding that adults with mental disorders tend to be elders with mental disorders. The incentive of healthy habits, a favorable environment for the practice of leisure and social life, are responsible factors for the most effective prevention in order to reduce the morbidity burden of mental disorders.