Measurement Of Life Events In Elderly Adults In A Mexican Population

Introduction: Life events or crisis are any circumstance or experience in the life of a person or family that generates stress or tension and a change. Aging is an irreversible, decreasing process of gradual losses and transformations at the biological, psychological, and social levels. Objective: To know the most stressful life events and compare their frequency and impact on older adults in a Family Medicine Unit. Method: A cross-sectional, descriptive, and prospective study, survey type; in 200 people over 60 years at primary care was done. Holmes and Rahe's scale measuring the impact of life events of the last year with 42 reagents according to the intensity of the event was applied. The assessment was made in SPSS version 25 for Windows. Items were added and when it was higher than 150 it was considered that it may affect the family or health status. A significance of p <0.05 was used. Results: Older adults experienced 4.2 life events per year, with a minimum of one and a maximum of 10. The most frequent crisis was the illness of a close relative; the most stressful was the death of the spouse and the least stressful the vacation period. The minimum value given to an event was 35. The minimum given by Holmes and Rahe was 10. The maximum value of both was 100. to change, so these crises can be both positive and negative for life. A person can be in more than one stressful situation at the same time. The stressful life events described by them are exposed on the scale, ranging from number 1 with a score of 100 to 42 with a minimum score of 10. [7,18,19]. Given that each culture the score can be modified by the assessment of stress, and that the impact of life Conclusions: The intensity with which older adults in Mexico experience life events is higher than that described by Holmes and Rahe. The impact is also quantified differently. The average score was high and it can affect the health of elderly adults and the family.