Objective.

To characterize the elderly population and their caregivers and to verify the association of depressive symptoms of the elderly and the caregiver’s burden with the variables of interest.

Methods.

A cross-sectional study with 80 elderly people and 78 caregivers in a Primary Health Service in southern Brazil. Retrospective collection conducted in a structured database based on the multidimensional evaluation tool applied to home care for the elderly participants and their caregivers.

Results.

Most elderly participants were women (71.3%), with an average age of 82.1 years and 52.6% reported sadness or discouragement. Systemic arterial hypertension was the most frequent morbidity (68.8%). Most caregivers were women (85.7%), daughters of the elderly person (53.2%), mean age 57.8 years and 38.7% reported feeling the burden. The presence of depressive symptoms in the elderly was associated with Parkinson's disease (p=0.016) and to have a male caregiver (p=0.006). Caregiver’s burden was associated with daily life activities such as bathing (p=0.021).

Conclusion.

There was evidence of differences in caregiver’s gender in the presence of depressive symptoms and differences in the assistance in daily life activities for the caregiver's burden.

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