Abstract
Introduction:
Studies on the elderly living in the Brazilian North Region are incipient and must be carried out to support health public policies. Objectives: this study describes the methodological design on the Projeto Idoso da Floresta, that analyzes the main health indicators of the elderly inserted in the Family Health Strategy, a Brazilian health public care program, in Manaus-AM. Methodology: a two-stage epidemiologic study was conducted as follows: (1st) selection of basic health units (UBS) as unit selection; (2nd) elderly selection as randomized sample unit from each UBS.
Results:
1,509 elderly were included in the analysis, 810 (53.6%) women (67.6±7.7 years old) and 699 (46.4%) men (66.8± 6,9 years old). In general, the elderly investigated here were married/widowed 94,8%), illiterate or with very low educational level (46.5%), lived in houses (94.7%), received some external support (57.5%), retired (64.5%) ,without or with lower economic income (67.9%). From the sample analyzed, 85.5% were independent and 10.3% reported to have > 4 morbidities. These results tended to be different in Manaus's health districts.
Conclusion:
in general, the variables analyzed tended to be similar to results described in other Brazilian epidemiological studies. However, there are differences among districts that must be considered in the elderly's health care strategy. Complementary analysis of the data described here, with sex, age and socioeconomic stratification need to be performed.
Key words:
Aging; Public Health; Geriatrics; Research Design; Sampling Studies; Socioeconomic Factors; Prevalence; Morbidity; Frail Elderly; Manaus, city AM