Violência e fragilidade em idosos atendidos numa unidade de pronto atendimento

Abstract

Violence against the elderly is considered a multifaceted and constantly muted phenomenon. It is understood that elderly in vulnerability and fragile are more predisposed to become victims of violence, however, there are still few researches that seek to evidence the existence of this correlation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the correlation between the risk of violence and the frailty in the elderly attended at a Care Unit. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive and exploratory study with a quantitative approach. It was developed in the city of Campina Grande, in a Emergency Care Unit, after approval of the Ethics and Research Committee of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte under CAAE No. 69857317.2.0000.5537. The population was composed of all the elderly attending the Unit, in the months of August and September 2017. The sample of 146 elderly individuals was calculated according to the calculation of finite population with a sampling error of 0.08. We included people aged 60 or over, who were in care and with physical and emotional conditions to respond to the instruments. The following were used: the sample characterization tool and the Edmonton Scales and the screening of violence against the elderly. The data collection took place after the consent of the institution, and followed the norms set forth in resolution no. 466/12 of the National Health Council and by signing the Term of Free and Informed Consent. Data were analyzed through SPSS, version 20.0 through non-parametric tests. The results indicated the predominance of married and widowed elderly people, with low education (56.16%), male, up to 73 years old (53.42%), living in the city of Campina Grande (78.08%) and (64.38%) attended at the Emergency Care Unit classified in the green area of risk, being the most acute complaint, with (82.19%). Most of the elderly were classified as fragile (47.95%) and at increased risk for violence (69.86%). Through the chi-square test (X2) and fisher's exact test, and the significance level for p-value <0.05, we observed a statistical relationship between the level of fragility and age, and the area of classification of care, while the risk of violence presented statistical significance for the age group. After the Spearman correlation test, with a significance level of 5%, the study showed evidence of a statistically significant correlation between the increased degree of frailty and the risk for violence in the elderly. The hypothesis of the study confirms that the fragility syndrome increases the vulnerability of the elderly being at risk of violence. In addition, it demonstrates the importance of the use of health professionals in the practice of instruments that evaluate these diseases for the purpose of early detection and to reduce their impact on the family, care services and the elderly.