Sociodemographic characteristics, self-assessment of health and their relationships with body mass index in older women

This research aims to correlate the Body Mass Index (BMI) variable with sociodemographic aspects and Self-Evaluation of Health (AS). It is a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study with 31 older adults. Sociodemographic data were collected in the anamnesis. An anthropometric assessment was also conducted, and for the Self-Assessment of Health (SA), the Brazilian version of the SF-36 protocol was applied. It was observed that the average of the group was classified as overweight ( = 28.12±4.97 kg/m 2 ); regarding AS, it was satisfactory in the three dimensions: Physical Health ( = 76±15 points), Mental Health ( = 72±11) and AS Total ( = 73±12). Observing correlations between BMI and total AS (r = 0.874, p <0.0001, high correlation) and also with different sociodemographic data. This outcome possibly occurred because the majority of participants are active, control stress and do not have harmful habits such as smoking and alcohol consumption.