Prevalence of water intake among non-institutionalized elderly individuals in Southern Brazil

The scope of this study was to determi-ne the percentage of elderly individuals receiving an adequate water intake and associated factors among non-institutionalized elderly individuals in the urban area of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. It involved a cross-sectional, population-based study carried out in 2014 with elderly partici-pants (& GE; 60 years) of the "COMO VAI?" survey. The amount of water ingested per day of the inter-viewees was investigated, considering the intake of at least eight glasses per day to be adequate. The independent variables were sociodemogra-phic, behavioral, and health characteristics, and Poisson Regression was used to investigate asso-ciations. A total of 1,451 elderly people were in-terviewed, with only 12.6% (95%CI 10.8; 14.7) drinking a sufficient amount. A higher percentage of the elderly with adequate water consumption was observed in younger elderly individuals, tho-se overweight, those with five or more diseases, and those who were more impaired. A low per-centage of the elderly with an adequate water intake was observed among the elderly adults in the study. The decreasing trend of water intake in relation to age highlights the importance of deve-loping actions for the higher risk population to stress adequate water intake and the possible con-sequences of the lack of adequate consumption.