Avaliação da qualidade de vida de idosos com hipertensão arterial sistêmica.

Abstract

Systemic Arterial Hypertension (SAH) is the main risk factor for the occurrence of cardiovascular events, which lead the mortality ranking worldwide. It’s Considered a serious public health problem, the SAH affects considerable portion of the elderly population and thus causes biopsychosocial and behavioral changes that can influence the subjective perception of quality of life. Understanding that the high and persistent prevalence of SAH in the aged and the existence of specific health care programs, the aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life of elderly patients with hypertension. It is exploratory and quantitative observational study conducted in five municipalities of Paraiba Western Curimataú, participating 237 seniors who self-reported involvement by the SAH. To obtain the data we used a sociodemographic questionnaire and WHOQOL-Old instrument for measuring and assessing the quality of life, and processed by IBM SPSS Statistics20.0 and following all analytical guidelines proposed by the World Health Organization. The results showed that the aged with HAS in Paraiba Curimataú, have a quality life classified as "regular" (54.65%), and among the aspects analyzed, those that obtained best and worst performances were "Activities Past, Present and Future" (68.83%) and "Death and Dying" (35.44), respectively. Thereby it is evident that really effective strategies should be launched in order to subsidize the gerontological care provided by nursing, considering health education a major tool for the pursuit of improving the quality of life of this specific population.