Evaluation of professional and non-professional caregivers of elderly patients in primary care health units in São Paulo

• Autor(a) principal: Gomes,Ana Beatriz Ayroza Galvão Ribeiro
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Carvalho,Ana Carolina Mayor de, Andrade,Carolina Puglia de, Penido,Flávia de Souza Oliveira, Couto,Ingrid Cardoso, Hashimoto,Maurício Karakida, Biancalana,Priscila, Marsiglia,Regina Maria Giffoni
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ggaging.com/details/164
• topic: Elder/ill caretaker. Stress, health profile.

<p><b>INTRODUCTION:</b> 15% residents of urban areas are over 60. A part of them rely on caregivers who often need special attention themselves.<br> <b>PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:</b> To assess the profile, level of stress and needs of professional and non-professional elderly patients caregivers of 2 primary care health units of S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil.<br> <b>SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:</b> To assess their morbidity, their interest in capacitation courses and discussion groups, as well as the level of disability of the patients under their care.<br> <b>METHODS:</b> 8 professional and 18 non-professional caregivers of 2 primary care units in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, underwent an interview where 4 questionnaires where applied: Profile of participant, Inventory of Symptoms &amp; Stress, The Brazilian Version of the Burden Interview and Functional Evaluation Scale of the Elderly Patient.<br> <b>RESULTS:</b> 85,3% of patients where women between the ages of 36-55; 40,7% of the non-professional caregivers where over the age of 60; 100% of them referred suffering from some form of disease. 88% of the professional caregivers showed interest in capacitation courses and 88,9% in belonging to support groups. Stress: Professional caregivers where mostly under light burden, non-professional caregivers where subjected to light/moderate burden. Inventory of Symptoms &amp; Stress: 44,4%, 14,8% and 40,8% of nonprofessional caregivers where in the alert, resiliency and exhaustion phases, respectively. Functional Evaluation Scale of the Elderly Patient: 77,8% and 75-100% of the professional and non-professional caregivers patients were classified as highly dependent.<br> <b>CONCLUSIONS:</b> The care of elderly patients is stressful and debilitating for caregivers, especially for nonprofessional ones. Most of the caregivers showed interest in capacitation courses and support groups.<br> <b>RECOMMENDATION:</b> It is recommended that a better attention be paid to elderly patients caregivers.</p>