Condições de fragilidade em idosos institucionalizados

Abstract

The raising of older people in Brazil comes as a consequence the high incidence of chronic diseases and functional limitations, leading to an increase in the process of institutionalization of these individuals. This study is justified by the need to know the health conditions and fragility of elderly people living in long-term institutions in the city of Passo Fundo-RS, so that later we can foment preventive actions in order to keep these individuals as functional as possible. The objectives of this study are: to characterize health conditions and fragility in institutionalized elderly people, as well as to correlate the fragility index of the elderly with the presence of sarcopenia, to compare the presence of chronic pain with the palmar grip strength, to evaluate the interaction between The variables of health and fatigue, and to relate the presenc e of fatigue .with the speed of the walking. Cross-sectional study. A cross-sectional, population-based study of 211 elderly individuals with an average age of 80.99 ± 9.14 years old, living in Long-Term Care Institutions for the Elderly (ILPI's), mostly philanthropic, in the city of Passo Fundo –RS. As inclusion criteria, all individuals aged 60 and over, of both genders, who lived in ILPI's in the city of Passo Fundo / RS. It were excluded elderly people hospitalized on the day of the interview, those who did not understand and / or spoke the Portuguese language, and those who had impaired comprehension limits to the execution of movements through verbal commands, neurological motor sequelae and acute conditions of degenerative diseases or diseases Chronic diseases that compromised the locomotor system. Sample losses were eligible elders who refused to participate or were not found in ILPI after three attempts on alternate days and times. Data were analyzed through absolute and percentage frequency measurements. Student's t test was used to evaluate the association between pain and palmar grip strength, correlation of Spearman was used for independent variables, correlation of Spearman was used for the association between fatigue and walking and for the interaction between fatigue and health variables, it was used chi-square and Fischer, with 95% confidence interval and significance level 5% (p≤0.05). The majority of the elderly were women (65.6%), aged 80-89 years (41%), Caucasian (88.4%), widows (51.8%) and had basic education, To 8 years of study (68.7%). Cognitive decline present in the majority of the sample (62.6%) and systemic arterial hypertension (54%) the most relevant health problem. Unintentional weight loss affected 29.9% of the elderly. The average palmar grip strength was 7.34 ± 6.53 in the right hand kgf and 7.19 kgf ± 7.15 in the left hand, gait speed was 21.12 ± 16.83 m / s, with Significant relationship between the effort to perform the tasks and the walking speed of the institutionalized elderly (p = 0.025). There was a significant relationship between the effort to perform the usual tasks and the presence of neoplasia (p = 0.008), as well as between the inability to perform the usual tasks and systemic arterial hypertension (p = 0.019), stroke (p = 0.034), depression (p = 0.042) and Parkinson's (p = 0.019). There was only a relationship between fragility (unintentional weight loss) and chronic pain (p = 0.011), as well as between chronic pain and the prevalence of sarcopenia (p = 0.011). It was verified that there was no relationship between chronic pain and palmar grip strength in the right and left hands, nor between fragility and sarcopenia. In this way, detailed investigations of the health-related impairments of the institutionalized elderly are essential for the development of intervention strategies focused on the priority needs of these, with a focus on functional improvement, aiming to promote a better quality of life for this population.