The elderly people with 80 or more years in the emergency service: Own’s Evaluation

• Autor(a) principal: Pina, Fernando
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Cardoso, Joana, Vicente, João, Almeida, Leonardo, Mendes, Letícia, Rodrigues, Luís, Esteves, Maria, Ferreira, Paula, Vieira, Margarida, Cunha, Madalena
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.48492/servir0207.31450
• topic: Pessoa Idosa; Serviço de Urgência; Elderly Person; Emergency Service; Persona Mayor; Servicio de Urgencia

Introduction: The increase in the average life expectancy of the population has been significantly reflected in the accentuated rate of aging and in the increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases, leading to an increase in the influx to the Emergency Services, by the elderly person aged 80 and over. Objective/s: Identify the reasons for visits to the emergency room by the elderly person with 80 or more years, taking into account their own perspective. Methods: Observational, descriptive cross-sectional cohort study in a non-probabilistic sample of 53 elderly people aged 80 and over, with a mean age of 88.60 years, most of whom were female (60.38%) who resorted to the Emergency Service of a Hospital Centre in the North of Portugal and who were sorted according to the Manchester Triage Protocol as non-urgent (green, blue and white). Data collection was carried out using interviews. Results: The most prevalent reasons that lead elderly people aged 80 and over to the Emergency Service were according to themselves: generalized pain (52.83%), difficulty breathing (26.42%), with an equal number of answers: fever and malaise (20.75%) and falls (15.10%). Of the relevant suggestions for reducing the number of elderly people aged 80 and over going to the Emergency Service, the highlights were the existence of longer hours in health care centres (31.71%), the existence of more doctors in the health care centre (28.57 %) and with the same number of responses, carrying out auxiliary diagnostic tests at Health Care Centres and greater medical availability for open consultations (21.43%). Conclusion: The identification of the reasons for visits to the Emergency Service experienced by the elderly aged 80 and over brings out the need for greater symptomatic control for the elderly and greater monitoring by Primary Health Care. It is suggested that this study be replicated with a larger sample, due to its reduced number and the scarcity of studies that focus only on the trip of elderly people aged 80 and over to the Emergency Service, since the vast majority of studies existing ones cover ages equal to or greater than 65 years.