Efetividade de um programa de educação nutricional na qualidade de vida de idosos da Estratégia Saúde da Família

Abstract

Objective: This study sought to elaborate and to verify the effectiveness of a nutritional education program in the quality of life of elderly people linked to the Family Health Strategy. Methods: Longitudinal intervention study with quantitative approach. It was attended by 118 elderly citizens enrolled in the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in the cities of Natal/RN and Santa Cruz/RN, who were divided into two groups: intervention and control. Data collection took place from December 2015 to December 2016. In order to collect data, we used a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Short-Form SF-36 and the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA), both at the first moment (before the interventions) and at the second moment (after the interventions). We planned four interventions, with a view to contemplating the demands, combining theory with practice. The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Onofre Lopes Hospital (CEP/HUOL), with the opinion nº 562.318 and CAAE: 21996313.7.0000.5537. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney test, Wilcoxon test and Spearman correlation. Results: The elderly citizens were mostly female, aged up to 71 years, and had household income greater than a minimum wage. We observed that 59.2% of the elderly individuals showed changes in BMI (overweight /underweight); and according to the MNA Screening Tool, 40.8% were at risk of malnutrition/malnourished. The nutritional education program was composed of four interventions, carried out in groups, with an average time of one and a half hours, with active methodologies. We obtained that the intervention participants showed higher values of the median at the second moment in the domains of functional aspect (72.5; p=0.045), physical aspect (100.0; p=0.637), general health status (56.0; p=0.016), social function (100.0; p=0.391), mental health (92.0; p=0.010), total score (72.2; p=0.851) and mental health dimension (81.0; p=0.134). We noted weak positive correlations between the number of participations in the interventions and the domains of general health status (r=0.334; p=0.009), total score (r=0.285; p=0.027), physical aspect (r=0.277; p=0.032), social function (r= 0.262; p=0.043), as well as in the mental health dimension (r=0.323; p=0.012) and in the physical dimension (r=0.308; p=0.017). The negative correlation was observed between the number of participations in the interventions and the aspect related to body pain (r=0.037; p=0.777). Conclusion: We perceived that the participation in nutritional interventions has provided positive effects for the general health, physical aspects, social function and mental health of the elderly citizens, thereby providing an improvement in the health and quality of life of those involved. These findings reinforce the importance of the development of health promotion actions related to the food and nutrition areas in the coverage of FHS.