Health Demands Characteristics and Quality of Life in the Elderly Monitored in the Primary Care

Abstract

Background: To characterize the demands of health and quality of life of elderly people monitored in the primary care of Rio Grande do Norte/Brazil. Methods and Findings:This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study of a quantitative approach with elderly patients monitored by the primary care. The sample was given for convenience, obtaining 120 participants. The research was conducted through an interview with theapplication of the following questionnaires: Mini Mental State Examination, Socio-demographic Data and Pain Characteristics, ShortForm-36, Mini Nutritional Assessment, the primary activities of daily living, the instrumental activities of daily living, Prism 7 and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical program, in which descriptive and association tests were used. Results:The main demands were related to functionality, followed by nutritional and geriatric depression. The quality of life presented worse results in the domain of general health status and better scores in the emotional and mental health aspects. Regarding the dimensions, the physical health obtained aworse score. Conclusion:Based on the found characterization of the health demands, it is suggested to perform other studies with the same population, enabling to plan and implementing a multidimensional intervention and improving the quality of life of the elderly people.