There are various physical, functional, psychological and social factors associated with the appearance of mental symptoms in the elderly. Our objective was to determine the relationship and influence of these different variables in the psychiatric symptomatology of the elderly who reside in the community.

Cross-sectional study of a sample of 324 patients over 65 years, representative of the elderly who reside in the community in the province of Huesca (Spain). Symptoms of depression (Yesavage GDS), cognitive impairment (MMSE), anxiety (GADS), psychotic symptoms, obsessive symptoms and hypochondriacal ideas (GMS) were measured. Social-demographic, physical and somatic, functional and social data were evaluated. Analysis was carried out in 3 phases: univariate, bivariate and multivariate with logistic regression.

At the time of the study, 46.1% of the elderly studied suffered from some psychiatric symptom. 16.4% had cognitive impairment, 15.7% anxiety, 14.3% depression, 6.1% hallucinations and delusions, 7.2% hypochondriacal ideas and 4.4% obsessive symptoms. Female gender was significantly associated with depression (PR: 3.3) and anxiety (PR: 3.9). Age was a factor associated with cognitive impairment (PR: 4.4). Depression was significantly related to severity of the physical illness (PR: 61.7 in extremely severe impairment). Solitude (PR: 16.3) and being single (PR: 13.4) were factors which were strongly associated with anxiety; living in residences was associated with psychotic symptoms (PR: 7.6).

Severity of physical illness, solitude, living in residences and female gender, among others, are related with psychiatric symptoms in community-residing elderly persons.