Sociocultural and economic conditions interact with biological processes throughout the course of life determining vulnerability or resilience in old age. The scope of this study was to investigate relationships between social vulnerability (gender, age and income); individual vulnerability (comorbidities, signs and symptoms, functional ability, perceived social support and perceived health), and programmatic vulnerability (indices of dependence on the public health system, social vulnerability and access to health services) in a sample of individuals aged 65 and more. 688 elderly people were interviewed in a single data gathering session in their homes in 88 selected urban census sectors in Campinas. 470 of the interviewees were women, with more comorbidities and more signals and symptoms, though more socially engaged in AADL and IADL than men. Mean age was 72.28 ± 5.41; mean family income = 4.72 ± 5.28 minimum wages. The variables with most explanatory power over the joint variation of the data were access and use of health services, levels of social vulnerability and dependence on public healthcare services, and family income. Social conditions as well as family income coexist with individual vulnerability in old age.
Old age; Access to health services; Socioeconomic status; Comorbidities; Functional ability
