Abstract
Objective
To analyze the practice of medical professionals in Primary Health Care (PHC) in municipalities that are centers of Residency in Family Healthcare in Minas Gerais (MG), Brazil.
Method
This is a cross-sectional and analytical study carried out from March to October 2018 with doctors and resident doctors who worked in the Family Health Strategy teams in eight municipalities in MG. The sociodemographic characteristics, participation in specific training for dementia, and practices of doctors in caring for the old person with dementia were evaluated.
Results
Among the professionals, most were female (63.4%) aged 30 years or less (57.7%), and did not participate in training for dementia (60%). It was observed that most doctors diagnosed the pathology in the moderate to the severe stage (67.5%). Among the difficulties in identifying cases of dementia, the following stood out: poor use of complementary exams (26.8%) and difficulty in differentiating signs and symptoms of dementia from their main differential diagnoses (50%). Participation in training influenced the difficulties in identifying the cases (p=0.019), differentiation of signs and symptoms (p=0.018), confidence in the diagnosis (p<0.001), responsibility for the diagnosis by the specialized service (p=0.019), and low availability of time by professionals (p=0.015).
Conclusion
Practical education in dementia provided to health professionals during medical training is still incipient and requires improvement, demanding educational interventions with the PHC team, and improvement of protocols aimed at early diagnosis and management of dementia.
Keywords
Dementia; Inservice Training; Health Personnel; Education; Primary Health Care