Functional capacity of elderly people attending the Family Health Program at Viveiros, Feira de Santana, Bahia

Abstract

As people grow older, their functional losses become more and more evident. The elderly will progressively stop performing basic activities of life, thereby decreasing his/her functional capacity - measured in terms of his/her independence and ability to perform certain daily activities. Objective: To assess the functional capacity of elderly people attending the Family Health Program (“Programa Saúde da Família”) in the neighborhood of Viveiros, Feira de Santana, Bahia. Method: This study is a cross-sectional research with a quantitative approach. The sample consisted of 34 male and female patients, aged 75. We conducted home visits to each of these elderly persons in order to apply three types of test: the Barthel Index, the Lawton Index and the Mini Mental State Examination. Results: The results show that 54.5% of these elders were found to be independent according to the Barthel Index, 51.5% were totally dependent according to the Lowton Index and 87.9% have some type of cognitive impairment according to the Mini Mental State Examination. Conclusion: Professionals working in the Family Health Program have to pay attention to the health status of the elderly, developing their care plan in accordance with the elderly’s actual needs. We hope that the interest of other researchers about the proposed topic will be raised, in order to increase the availability of research (currently scarce) in this area of knowledge, so that the elderly will receive more adequate attention and counseling, by expanding the range of services and programs available to them.