Consumo de risco de álcool entre idosos na área de abrangência das estratégias saúde da família

Abstract

The accelerated increase in the number of elderly in the population, bring a number of challenges that relate to the family, poverty, retirement, especially with health promotion and disease prevention. It is known that with advancing age there is an increase in the prevalence of typical health problems of the elderly, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, rheumatic and mental diseases, such as dementia and depression. Besides these, the consumption of alcohol is a problem that can compromise the health of the elderly population. We sought to identify the hazardous use of alcohol among older registered in the areas covered by the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in Manaus-AM. It is a cross-sectional analytical study. The selected population consisted of people aged 60 or older living in the area of coverage of ESF distributed in four urban geographical areas of Manaus, AM, and have passed the Verbal Fluency Test. Questionnaires on socioeconomic, demographic, epidemiological, health status, and aspects of the AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), a screening tool for identifying risk of problems related to alcohol consumption (WHO) were applied. It was observed that the elderly had a mean age of 70.52 ± 7,61anos, most females (64.04%), married / with partner (46.06%), living with family (87.07%), socioeconomic class C1 (37.22%). 54.89% considered reasonable health, the most prevalent diseases hypertension (64.98%). Regarding the consumption of alcohol, was identified in the application of AUDIT that 86.12% of the elderly respondents were entered into the risk level I, ie, the low-risk or non-existent; 3.15% at level III and IV indicating high risk. Thus, it can be seen that the AUDIT proved applicable in primary care for the identification of risk of use of alcohol in the elderly. In addition, the care with health problems in this population characteristic part of routine care of Primary Care in the city of Manaus. However, it was found that the problems related to alcohol consumption are still little explored by health professionals treating the elderly.