title: Perceived neighborhood characteristics and the functional performance of elderly people in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area, Minas Gerais State, Brazil: a quantile regression analysis.
abstract: This study aims to examine the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and the functional performance of elderly people living in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Data of a representative sample of 2,033 elderly were analyzed using quantile regression. Functional performance was measured by the number of activities of daily living (ADL) the elderly had difficulty to perform. The neighborhood characteristics evaluated were: maintenance, trust, insecurity and defective sidewalks. Functional performance was found positively associated with the characteristic defective sidewalks, whose effect increased as the number of ADL the elderly had difficulty to perform increased. The results suggest that inadequate sidewalk conditions can contribute to functional losses in elderly people, especially among those who are functionally more compromised.
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Pública e Envelhecimento, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Renzo Joel Flores
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Pública e Envelhecimento, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.|Departamento de Fisioterapia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Fabiane Ribeiro
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Pública e Envelhecimento, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.|Departamento de Medicina Preventiva e Social, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Maria Fernanda
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Lima-Costa
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Pública e Envelhecimento, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.|Departamento de Estatística, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Cibele Comini
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: César
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population