Perfil de dependência dos idosos atendidos no centro mais vida do hospital das clínicas da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais em 2011

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of the present work is to characterize the profile of elderly individuals at the Centro Mais Vida of the Instituto Jenny de Andrade Faria at Hospital das Clínicas of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, from January 2nd to December 31st, 2011. Material and Methods: The registers of eight hundred and eighty-one care plans were studied. The descriptive statistics of the variables of interest, frequency description and the assessment of the statistical significance of differences with the Chi-square test were used. Results: The age has ranged from 60 to 107 years, with a mean of 77 years. The frequency of functional decline in the activities of daily living (ADLs) was 23.5% in the basic activities (BADL), and 54.6% in the instrumental activities (IADLs), with differences related to schooling and sex within all the age groups. The frequency of frail elderly individuals was 92.1%. Cognitive impairment, postural instability, urinary incontinence and communication problems are observed in more than 50% of the studied population. The elderly profile was described for each health district as to the following variables: dependence in ALDs, fragility, polypathology and polypharmacy. Conclusion: The results point to the importance of the study of dependence and fragility as an instrument for elderly caregiving planning with the purpose of preventing or mitigating the functional disability adding life quality to longevity and contributing to the qualification of formal or informal caregiving professionals. Health District (HD) stratification allows for planning and improvement in-service and municipal elder care network. Outcome of the present dissertation: this study gave rise to three articles that will be submitted to a journal.