Quedas e recorrência: associação com déficit visual e auditivo autopercebidos e acesso dispensado ao evento em idosos comunitários

Abstract

The falls are a prevalent event among the elderly and because of their physical, psychological, social and economic dimension, it is considered a serious public health problem. Underlying the already known risk factors, we emphasize in this study behavioral factors such as self-perception and the influence of visual deficits, especially the self-perceived auditory hearing related to fall and recurrent falls. It is considered the importance of knowing the health services that these individuals have access to and use after this event occurs. Therefore, the objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and recurrence of falls and their association with selfperceived visual and auditory deficit, to describe the access and severity related to this event in the elderly in the city of Juiz de Fora. A cross - sectional study, which evaluated 315 community - dwelling elderly individuals ≥ 60 years of age, of both sexes by means of a household survey. Data were analyzed by the Stata 13.0 program, checking the Prevalence Ratios with 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) and α = 0.10. In the multivariate analyzes, the Poisson and Multinomial Regression models were fitted. The results will be presented in two studies. In the first, the prevalence of falls was 34.3% and 10.8% of recurrence. The prevalence of falls in individuals with self-perceived hearing loss was 45.6%. It was associated with the fall: age group of 70 to 79 years female and no use of devices for visual correction and recurrent falls: age ≥ 80 years and Visual Deficiency and Self-perceived Deficiency. In the second study, we observed that age greater than 80 years, need for hospitalization at the prompt or hospitalization, and greater percentage of loss of consciousness after the fall was more associated with the recurrent fall that was considered more severe than the falls suffered by the elderly who fell once. Both groups reported having more access to public services, although a large portion had at least some health insurance. The falls were characterized as domiciliary and diurnal, but elderly people reporting a fall fell more on the staircase and balcony different from the recurring fall that occurred in more restricted places such as bedroom and living room. The results indicate an important relation between selfperceived hearing deficit and fall besides relevant information about the characteristics and severity of falls among community-dwelling elders. Considering from this the need for a broad investigation of the relationship between auditory deficits and the adaptations that are made to the elderly who listen poorly and who according to our study have little access to hearing correction devices could help in strategies for the prevention of this event. In addition to highlighting the importance of prevention through more effective access to primary care and the provision of home visits by Family Health Strategy teams that could assist in guidelines to reduce the occurrence of falls in the most prevalent places and the impact of the fear of recurrent falls among the elderly in the community.