Epidemiological profile of the aged person; experience of a Health Unit of the Program of Family Health in Curitiba

Abstract

Investigations show the problems related to aging and aged people to be a future urgency. This gerontological approach aims to establish the profile of a group of aged people in the community called Vila Torres, in the city of Curitiba, with the intent to determine the worsening of this question. After obtaining free and informed consent, we performed a general evaluation of the health status of the patients in question. This evaluation involved anthropometry, brief evaluation of the nutritional condition and of the mental state, physical test and revision of the electronic records (containing information about number of consultations, diagnosis, prescribed medication and confirmation of data), covering a period of one year preceding this investigation. The following data were obtained: 72% of examined individuals were diagnosed with high arterial pressure, being or not under treatment; 64% of these patients showed as well systolic as diastolyc alterations; b) the alterations in arterial pressure were directly related to changes in the mental state (dementia); c) there was a high percentage of dementia among normotense individuals belonging to the age group between 70 and 74 years (4 among the evaluated cases); d) in view of the unfavorable socio-economical situation of the patients, the level of nutritional alterations was high. None of the patients submitted to evaluation presented with adequate nutritional state, 83% of them were under nutritional risk and 17% were undernourished (this condition was only perceivable by means of the nutritional evaluation); e) all age groups were composed by more women than men. Thus, being observed in even higher proportions than in the literature, undernourishment and uncontrolled hypertension of aged people in this community must urgently be controlled through promotional, preventive and therapeutic actions, besides a better planning of actions focused to the causes, risks and damages of these conditions.