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Definido como la ausencia o escasez de relaciones sociales significativas con familia, amigos y comunidad, el aislamiento social representa un problema de salud pública prioritario en la población adulta mayor. Evaluar la prevalencia del aislamiento social y explorar su asociación con el estado de salud en adultos mayores residentes en zonas rurales del Ecuador. Estudio transversal con cuestionario estructurado, realizado en tres parroquias rurales del cantón Cuenca (Sinincay, Ricaurte y El Valle) en el año 2024. Se incluyeron adultos mayores de 65 años (N=314). El aislamiento social fue evaluado mediante la Escala de Soledad ESTE-R, estableciéndose como punto de corte la mediana de la distribución (?111 puntos). Se evaluaron cuatro dimensiones de salud: riesgo de caída (Tinetti), función cognitiva (MMSE), depresión (Yesavage) y dependencia funcional (Lawton y Brody). Se aplicaron modelos de regresión logística univariada y multivariada. La prevalencia de aislamiento social fue del 50.6% (n=159). El grupo aislado presentó mayor proporción de hombres (39.6% vs. 23.2%; p<0.001), mayor convivencia con pareja (49.0% vs. 21.9%; p<0.001) y menor realización de actividad física (71.2% vs. 77.7%). La depresión fue significativamente más frecuente en el grupo aislado (49.7% vs. 36.1%; p=0.023), con OR ajustado de 1.72 (IC 95%: 1.07–2.78). El deterioro cognitivo fue menos frecuente en el grupo aislado (33.3% vs. 51.6%; p=0.002; OR ajustado: 0.49). La dependencia funcional también fue menor en el grupo aislado (46.2% vs. 59.4%; p=0.017). El puntaje global de salud fue significativamente inferior en el grupo aislado (diferencia ajustada: ?4.12 puntos; IC 95%: ?6.78, ?1.46). El aislamiento social se asocia con mayor prevalencia de depresión y peor estado global de salud en adultos mayores rurales ecuatorianos. Estos hallazgos destacan la necesidad de implementar intervenciones comunitarias dirigidas a reducir el aislamiento social y promover el envejecimiento saludable en contextos rurales.
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Derechos de autor 2026 Verónica Estefanía Uyaguari Piedra, Rosa Veronica Sumba Portilla, Angel Efrain Palaguachi Tenecela