Um novo olhar sobre as quedas em idosos: proposta de diagnóstico ambiental e prevenção

Abstract

The population aging implies the need for a new look for fall prevention and home security of the elderly, especially in the face of evidence that elderly are most of their time at home. The aim of this study is to implement an action plan for preventing falls in older people, starting from the preparation of an environmental safety guide and elderly health booklet. Therefore, we performed an analytical, observational cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, in 288 elderly people aged over 60 years old, of both male and female sexes, in the countryside of São José de Mipibu City in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, in 2016, by the simple random probability sampling method (p = 0.30 and e = 0.05). We used the questionnaire environmental assessment and falls belonging to elderly health booklet. We enabled the ACS American College of Surgeons (ACS) criteria for recognition and identification of risks of elderly falls at home, method of recognition and identification of the risks of falls of domicile of the elderly producing a guide by the authors, result of the research intervention, titled Home security insurance, active seniors elderly. It was showed that the most homes of the elderly people are unsafe, and most of the houses are built from the Federal Brazilian housing project of the federal government and delivered without any environmental safety item. The environmental assessment regarding the lighting proved to be safe, pointing to switches for easy access at the room entrance. The bathroom is the most insecure room, and even though the kitchen and the bedrooms are the less unsafe rooms. It was observed that most of elderly people usually had present some type of reduced mobility, as well as walking, auditory or visual ability, but only 10.42% of them reported such deficiency, as factors that may predispose them to the risk of falls. Falls were observed in 24.65% of the seniors respondents and the majority of these falls occurred indoors (63.38%). It was also found that 23.94% of falls resulted in some kind of bone fracture and 21.13% of seniors said they had paralyzed their activities, for fearing of falling again, and 15.49% have fallen more than once a year. Security items were only found in households where the elderly had been dropped, indicating that the purchase of security items is always possible, however the elderly only get them after the occurrence of falls, indicating the lack of prevention that can be done not only with the purchase of safety items, but with some guidelines found in the Guide above mentioned. The same proved to be an effective collective tool, capable of recognizing a prone to falls environment and possible intervention with the elderly and their families to prevent falls.