Frail elderly attended at family health centers: families'profile

Abstract

This is a descriptive and exploratory study that aims to characterize the socio-demographic profile and the health features of the families of frail elderly patients treated in family health centers. Data were obtained from patients' files and from monthly reports written by community health agents and were organized using descriptive statistics. Most of the patients were illiterate married women aged between 70 and 79 years old. Hypertension was the most prevalent disease, although pain and mental health disorders were most frequently reported. We noted that 39.2% of patients had not been to any medical consultation and 64.7% had had no nursing consultation in the last year. Family caregivers were mostly women aged between 40 and 50 years old. The gap between the health team records and the elderly reports must be highlighted as well as the fact that most of them had had no health care. These families are at the end of life, facing multiple losses. We believe that knowing their life context and the practices performed by health professionals may be useful to guide specific aid and determine actions that attend these patients' profile