SOUSA, Daniele Pereira.
Resumen:
The phenomenon of aging is a reality, as well as the presence of chronic diseases that generate disabling processes and compromise the quality of life of the elderly. Among these pathologies, the ones that most frequently affect this population group are heart diseases, becoming worse in the presence of risk factors. This study aimed to investigate cardiovascular diseases and their predisposing factors that affect elderly people residing in a Long-Term Institution (ILP) in the city of Cajazeiras - PB. The research is exploratory, descriptive and quantitative. To contemplate the proposed objective, a questionnaire was initially applied to twenty-two elderly people living in the Luca Zorn Shelter. Through some criteria such as the presence of cardiovascular diseases and / or their risk factors, a systematic sample of twelve participants was selected. The collected data were statistically analyzed, in a simple percentage, regarding demographic data and clinical history, which were displayed in figures and tables (both elaborated by the Microsoft Excel 2007 program). The results obtained point to the prevalence of 45.45% of elderly people aged 60 to 69 years, 90% are female, only 32% are literate and 50% are divorced. The main reasons for the institutionalization of these elderly people were the abandonment of family members (54.54%) and health problems (45.46%). With regard to clinical data, 41% of the elderly have cardiovascular problems (heart failure and angina pectoris) and 14% have risk factors (high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus) for these diseases. Providing health and care services to institutionalized elderly requires technically trained human resources, a fact that does not occur in the reality studied, mainly due to financial and administrative deficiencies. In this sense, and the presence of a competent nurse professional is required to provide qualified and humanized nursing care, providing the ILP with the necessary conditions to meet the biopsychosocial needs of this clientele.
