Impactos da covid-19 no tratamento, comorbidades e acesso aos serviços de saúde dos pacientes hipertensos do município de Cuité - PB.

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic seriously affected the entire world, with more than 766 million confirmed infections and taking more than 6.9 million lives by May 2023. People who had some comorbidity were classified as a risk group for infection by the virus, including those with high hypertension. The number of infected hypertensives was significant during the pandemic, leading many users to severe disease states and even death. Due to overcrowding, health services had to reinvent themselves to continue providing care to people with comorbidities, especially in small towns, as access proved difficult due to the high number of infected people. Objective: to evaluate the impacts of Covid-19 on the treatment, comorbidities, and access to health services for hypertensive patients in the city of Cuité-PB. Methodology: This is an exploratory descriptive cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, carried out with hypertensive patients in primary care in the municipality of Cuité in Paraíba who were affected by Covid-19, through the application of a questionnaire containing 40 questions involving three categories: socioeconomic, arterial hypertension and covid-19. Results: 65 hypertensive patients distributed among the 5 main UBS of the municipality participated in the research, of which 81.5% (n=53) were female, most had a low level of education, 55% (n=36) with stage I hypertension, even so, 83% (n=54) showed concern in keeping the pressure controlled linked to positivity about lifestyle habits since 91% (n=59) have no alcohol history and 83% (n=54) have no smoking habit, along with responsibility in the treatment, where 72% (n=47) demonstrated taking antihypertensive drugs at the same time, reducing the chances of complications in the treatment. Given this, the most prevalent comorbidity associated with hypertension was Diabetes with 29.2% (n=19) prevalence, with increased blood glucose levels after virus infection among participants. Among users, the majority had mild symptoms, with headaches being the most frequent and 28 participants had no sequelae after infection. Since the arrival of immunobiologicals for protection against the disease, 49% (n=32) of hypertensive patients have taken up to the 2nd booster of the vaccine, presenting mild cases of covid-19 after the vaccination schedule and 36 participants had no adverse reactions after vaccination. Final considerations: given the above, it can be seen from the present research that the impacts of Covid-19 on hypertensive patients in Cuité - PB were minimal, taking into account good lifestyle habits together with the constancy of pharmacological treatment by users. The complete vaccination schedule also made a positive difference in cases of infection. Even so, it is still suggested that this topic continues to be investigated within primary care linked to the hypertensive public, to promote quality of life and information for users with high blood pressure in the municipality.