The elderly with dementia in a specialized attention center in the city of Fortaleza - Ceará

Abstract

Introduction: to prolong a healthy and free of disability life becomes of relevance to the current science. Objective: to analyze the health profile of the elderly with dementia in specialized services, with a view to outlining actions for the quality of interdisciplinary assistance in health care for the elderly in the city of Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil. Method: this was an exploratory, descriptive, quantitative, and cross-sectional study developed in Center for the Attention to Elderly Health at the Walter Cantidio University Hospital of the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil. A total of 330 elderly were randomly selected and investigated. Data collection occurred between January and May of 2009 through a semistructured questionnaire. The data were analyzed and categorized in the Epi-Info program, version 6.0. Graphs and tables were used with a descriptive analysis and discussion based on existing research. Results: most patients were women (70.61%) between 80 and 89 years old (52.7%), possessing an informal caregiver (87%). The assistance in the center were provided by doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nutritionists, speech therapists, social workers, and psychologists. The most prevalent diseases were: Alzheimer’s disease (64.5%), vascular dementia (21.8%), mixed dementia (10%), and Parkinson’s disease (7.6%). The most frequent associated diseases were: hypertension (36.7%) and diabetes mellitus (17.3%). Conclusions: it is concluded that there is satisfaction about the assistance among professional staff and families, showing the need for interdisciplinary and contextualized actions in the region.