The sense of life in the geriatric population in ¨Samuel Fernandez¨consultory office -Home.Year 2003.

Abstract

One of the most important aspects in the study of the man is the sense of life. This is a wide, regulative concept used in different studies as the ethiology, sociology, psychology and psyquiatry, to refer to the human conduct and the system of value, the ideals, the aspirations and the objective according to the ones that decipher the human behaviour. We propose to make a descriptive, transversal and prospective study applied in the ancient population belonging to Samuel Fernández consultory in Playa, during the period of January 2003 to June of the same year. The sample was made by 128 patients to whom a visit and a questionnaire were done. For the application of this instrument the cooperation from the patients was asked. Many exploratory questions are performed about the patient´s valoration of life, life purpose, attitudes and future plans. Later a psyquiatric test to determine the presence of depression symptoms is done, using the diagnosis criteria of the international classification of illness. The results are shouwn in lists. We conclude that in diagnostic old people with depression the predominants are the ones that do not have a clearand definite sense of life. The sense of life does not appear to be influenced by the age and sex, but by the educational level. We recommend to develop psychotherapy techniques like logotherapy as well as the search of human existence and its sense.