Abstract
Introduction
To verify the factors associated to functional independence of elderly in home care assistance.
Method
Analytical description of a cross-sectional study was accomplished through 80 handbooks of elderly people assisted in a Home Care Program.
Results
The elderly sample was composed of a majority feminine (76,3%), widows (57,5%), advanced age (83,36 ± 7,67) and bed rest (50%). They presented a low punctuation in total FIM (61,08 ± 33,10), motor (41,03 ± 24,38) and cognitive (20,05 ± 10,77), developing a functional dependence. The presence of several disease associated and high consumption of drugs had a significant weak positive correlation with a decrease in the punctuation of cognitive FIM. The presence of skin disease and/or subcutaneous tissue, mental problems and to be rest are issues associated with the decrease in punctuation of total FIM, motor and cognitive. The presence of nervous systems disease was associated with functional decline of total FIM and motor.
Conclusions
The acknowledgement of factors associated to functional decline (specific classes of disease, high consumption of drugs and kind of locomotion) can lead to a professional assistance of the main problems, before they are installed and come to impair elderly people’s quality of life.
health of the elderly; frail elderly; homebound persons; home nursing