Quedas em idosos: perfil epidemiológico de vítimas socorridas pelo Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência no Alto Sertão Paraibano.

Abstract

The growth of the elderly population, combined with a way of life healthier and more active, leaves this group of people more exposed at risk of trauma. For these and others that currently there is an increasing demand for emergency care and emergency, for which a good and fast service can lessen the incidence of sequelae and deaths. This work was developed on the basis of aid made by the Office of Mobile Emergency Care - SAMU de Sousa - PB, to elderly victims of falls in the period from October 2010 to October 2011. aiming to outline the epidemiological profile of elderly. This is an exploratory, descriptive and quantitative study of the indirect type. It was used as an instrument of data collection, the records of the occurrences of the SAMU. The results showed the following characteristics: female victims (58.6%) with a percentage higher than the male, aged 60 to 65 years had a higher incidence of falls, accounting for 21.6%, with most victims coming from Sousa (96.5%). Among the circumstances and consequences of falls could be observed a higher incidence of falls in the month of May 2011 with 17 (14.7%) of cases, the shift was a predominance of the day, between 12:00 and 17:59 (38 8%), and the days of the weak were fifths and Saturdays (16.9%o). It was also observed, that in most instances was simple falls (82.8%) and the background of the elderly hypertensive crises constituted 16.2% of cases. In comparison with other data, considered the great importance of these, you should still look for: signs and symptoms, the affected region, the main types of injuries, fate and condition of the victim and the most common procedures. The data presented reflects the hard reality of traumatized elderly attended by the emergency services / emergency, which awaken new visions about what the problem. The knowledge of such an event is essential for planning of public policies for disease prevention and health promotion.