Condomínio para idosos : implicações para a saúde e o cuidado de enfermagem nessa nova modalidade habitacional

Abstract

Knowing the senior's life and health conditions is essential for the full assistance, once it will allow the professionals of health and managers to formulate actions in order to turn the care effective and with quality. The objective of this study was to describe and compare the life and health conditions of seniors living in the assisted living facilities in the municipal district of Maringá -PR, to the ones living in the community. It is a study with two methodological grounds, a quantitative one carried out with 223 senior subjects, being 50 residents of the assisted living facilities and 173 of the community; and the other a qualitative one accomplished with 50 seniors of the assisted living facilities. Data was collected from November 2011 to February 2012, through semi-structured interview, with the use of three instruments: Brazil Old Acts Schedule (BOAS) sections I, III and VII; WHOQOL-BREF and WHOQOL-OLD. For analysis, the tests of Chi-square, Fisher and Mann Whitney were used. The qualitative data was analyzed according to thematic content analysis. Results showed that the individuals, in their majority, were female, lived with a companion, professed Catholic religion and lived on a minimum wage income. A statistically significant difference was observed among the groups in relation to the variables education and civil status. Although the perception of health has been considered good for most of the seniors, there are some challenges related with the high rates of chronic diseases (78.47%); medication use (80.07%) and oral health, for the seniors of both groups. The use of medical services was smaller among the seniors living in the assisted living facilities, what can be related to the non-assistance from the Family Health Strategy Program (FHSP). The comparison among the groups evidenced that the seniors of the assisted living facilities present greater score of life quality in some variables that are directly linked to the very own physical environment of the assisted living facilities and to the profile of the seniors selected to live there. The prevalence of depressive symptoms among the seniors was of 23.3%, and those that live in the assisted living facilities possess 2.7 times more chance to present depressive symptoms. Some mental health measures are already being taken by the clerkship of social assistance, such as the countless activities and walking programs offered. However there is a need of more stimuli on the part of the professionals concerning the participation, mainly of the seniors that present depressive symptoms, considering they will not take the initiative to participate themselves. In the qualitative analysis an improvement on the quality of life, referred by the seniors, was found. It was associated to countless factors, but mainly related to the home conditions and the advantages that the assisted living facility offers. Overall, we can identify that the assisted living facility provides improvement to the condition of the senior's life in a situation of social vulnerability. However, one of the points brought by the study which deserves attention from the part of the managers, is the need of health assistance for these individuals, an assistance from FHSP and an action plan by the health professionals seeking the maintenance of the autonomy, which is an indispensable condition to qualify to reside in the assisted living facilities.