Functional disability of older adult's women and men with self-reported cataract: structural equation modeling.

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the factors directly and indirectly associated with the functional disability of older women and men with cataracts.

Methods: cross-sectional study carried out among 302 women and 142 elderly men with self-reported cataracts living in a health macro-region in Minas Gerais. Structural equation modeling was performed through path analysis (p<0.05).

Results: in the groups, the lowest cognitive ability (p<0.001; p=0.001) and the highest number of compromised components of the frailty phenotype (p<0.001; p<0.001) were directly associated with functional disability. In older women, there was a direct association with the outcome of worse physical performance (p<0.001) and greater sedentary behavior (p<0.001), and in men, the greater number of depressive symptoms (p<0.001). As for the indirect ones, an association between lower education, mediated by lower cognitive capacity, and functional disability was identified in both groups (p<0.001).

Conclusion: regardless of gender, functional disability is associated with worse cognitive ability and the frailty syndrome; specifically, among older women, the outcome was associated with physical and behavioral conditions; among men, to the presence of depressive symptoms.