Keywords: Biostatistics, Public Health, SAS
The Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES) is a set of longitudinal surveys that look at the health and life course experiences of the older Costa Rican populations. The interest in the Costa Rican population regarding this study has only increased over the years due to the observed high longevity and greater life expectancy in comparison to other countries, like the United States. Our study observed the CRELES 1945-1955 Retirement Cohort, a sample that included residents born from 1945-1955. The sample incorporated 2,800 “baseline long-form interviews” of age-eligible individuals, as well as 1,400 interviews with their spouses regardless of age. The data collected is well-suited to look at longevity determinants, the relationship between socioeconomic status and health, the relationship between stress on health on the population, and the effects of different patterns of health behavior on overall health. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between physical activity in the past 12 months and depression in the elderly Costa Rican population. By analyzing the data set provided by the CRELES, we conducted a series of statistical analysis using SAS (Statistical Analysis System) to determine the associations between variables and calculated numerical summaries to account for the role of other continuous variables within the data set. Ultimately, we were able to conclude that there is a relationship between physical activity and depression in elderly Costa Ricans.