Avaliação funcional dos idosos assistidos na Unidade Básica de Saúde da Família Bonald Filho.

Abstract

The evaluation of functional disability of the elderly as well as understanding the factors that contribute to this are needed in the planning of public policies with emphasis on the (re)organization of more effective preventive and therapeutic strategies that will provide greater independence and autonomy to the elderly, reduce costs to the health service and minimize the burden on caregivers. Thus, this research aims to study the social aspects and chronic degenerative diseases present in elderly assisted in the Unity of Basic Health Bonald Filho, Campina Grande; to assess the degree of functional capacity of the elderly; to investigate the existence of a relation between social aspects and the degree of functional capacity of the elderly; to investigate the relation between disability and caregiver presence. Therefore, it is a clipping from a descriptive study with a quantitative approach, performed from the activities of the Education Program for Work in Health, in line Elderly Health, that occurred from December 2011 to March 2012 and reached a total of 150 interviewed. The Katz Index and the Lawton Scale were used to collect data. Then the data were analyzed using the softwares EpiInfo version 7, SPSS version 16 in Portuguese and Microsoft Excel version 2003 to 2007. The project was submitted for consideration by the Committee of Ethics in Research of the University Hospital Alcides Carneiro, and approved under judgment 20112111. The study was composed mostly by elderly people belonging to the age group between 60 and 79 years (79.3%). There was a higher prevalence in females (65.3%). Among women, the age group that stood out was between 70 and 74 years (24.5%) and among men the highest proportion was between 65 and 69 years (26.9%), demonstrating the highest life expectancy among women. The Katz index showed 86.6% of the elderly in category A: 8% category B, 2% category C, 1.3% category F, 1.3% category G, with the majority of older individuals being independent for basic activities of daily living. The scale of Lawton held 64.67% of seniors as independent. Among these, 57.73% were aged between 60 and 70 years, 28.86% were between 71 and 80 years and 13.4% were older than 81 years, supporting the idea of loss of independence and autonomy with the progression of age. It was concluded that the actions developed in the context of promoting the autonomy and functional capacity of the elderly are still insufficient, especially because very few actions are directed to dependent elderly and their caregivers. The improvement of this situation involves the qualification of health teams and the preparation of future professionals in the prospect of an effective practice of integrated care for the elderly.