ATTENTION TO THE ELDERLY'S HEALTH IN FAMILY HEALTH UNITS (FHU).

Abstract

The presente study has as a goal to analyse the attendance to the elderly in Family Health Units (FHU) in the elderly's perspective and to identify their complaints about health when they are assisted, in the municipal district of Natal, RN. It is a descriptive and exploratory study in 26 FHU in the period of july, 2007, through the structured interview and application that contained objectives and subjectives questions, in one sample of the intentional and non-probabilistic type to 297 elderly. The results refers a prevalence in the female sex (67%), marital status with (47,8%) married, age group between 61 and 65 years old (32%), income family of 1 to 2 minimum salary (51,5%) and 91,6% lived in the adscript area of UHF where they are assisted. The mainly complaint is the artery hypertension (28,3%) and 64,3% of the professionals who assisted the elderly are doctors and 21,5% are nurses. For 90,9% of the aged the attendance is “good” and they will follow the recevied treatement, and about the orientations according to 38,5% they say about the feeding. After the attendance, 30% of the aged were refer to others professionals, and 30,3% these, to the cardiologist. Finally, the aged suggest the addition of professional numbers (23,9%) in the perpective of the addition of this attendance. It is believed that the increment of this attendance in the FHU could guarantee a more centered attention in the promotion and prevention of the health and in the specific protection of the risks and offences, avoiding the current continuous flow of the aged in urgency services and it would attend to the principle of Unique Health System integrality.