Dependência funcional, sentido e qualidade de vida em idosos com e sem hipertensão arterial sistêmica.

Abstract

Aging is a natural process that represents longevity. According to United Nations projections, in 2050 there will be more seniors than 15-year-olds. However, along with old age, there are the functional and morphological alterations, most of them associated with the presence of chronic diseases, such as systemic arterial hypertension, which affects about 55% of the elderly. The objective of this study was to analyze the functional dependence, sense and quality of life in the elderly with and without systemic arterial hypertension. This is a descriptive field study with a comparative and quantitative approach, carried out in the João Bosco Braga Barreto Family Health Strategy, located in the municipality of Cajazeiras-Paraíba, with a sample of 155 elderly people. Descriptive statistical analysis (absolute distributions, percentages and mean) and statistical tests were performed in SPSS software, version 20. The study obeyed the ethical precepts set forth in Resolution 466/2012 of the National Health Council, being approved by the Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Campina Grande / Teacher Training Center under opinion nº 2,719,392. The results showed that the profile was predominant with elderly women aged 60-70 years, living with others, married, income of 1 to 2 minimum wages and illiterates. Functional independence was identified in both groups of elderly individuals with and without hypertension, the changes that were observed in the results of the domains may be related to the decline of some systems that occur in the aging phase. Regarding quality of life, regular classification was present in both groups, indicating a mean index in relation to the quality of life, with a more negative perception in the hypertensive elderly. The questioning about the meaning of life in the elderly of the study was presented positively when the result of the majority was the presence of existential achievement, which reflects on the independence and quality of life of these elderly people. Considering the presence of a sense of life by most of the participants, this should be a strategy to be worked with these elderly people, with emphasis on hypertensive individuals, in order to face the adversities arising from aging and the presence of comorbidities, doing so to recognize a greater sense behind these lived questions, and to bring to itself teachings that allow him to change in his favor the circumstances of life in which he finds himself.