Objectives:

To know the self-perceived health, lifestyle, functional capacity and relationship between them, in a group of older adults from a rural primary healthcare center.

Methods:

Cross-sectional observational study. The participants filled out a questionnaire made up of sociodemographic, clinical, socio-family support data, linked to COVID-19 and 5 scales: MEDAS-1, RAPA, Barthel, SARC-F and SF-36. The variables were analyzed through hypothesis contrasts and Pearson's coefficient, considering statistical significance with p<0.05.

Results:

The sample consisted of 142 older adults, with an average age of 75.85 years. Most of them were married, had primary education, were not caregivers, did not have toxic habits, were polymedicated, took psychotropic drugs, and were not afraid of COVID-19. The sample had a normal weight overall, 48.6% demonstrated high adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD), 35.9% were moderately active, 54.9% indicated independence for basic activities of daily living (BADL), and 75.4% showed low risk of sarcopenia. The sample's perception of health was lower in most of the SF-36 subscales analyzed than that of the reference population, being lower in women and with increasing age. Older adults with low adherence to MD, sedentary, dependent, and with sarcopenia showed a lower perception of health. Participants with low adherence to the MD were more sedentary and those who were more dependent had a higher risk of sarcopenia.

Conclusions

an inadequate lifestyle and functional limitation significantly reduce the self-perception of health, requiring intervention to correct them.

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