Assistance to carry out the basic activities of daily life after erderly’s hospital discharge

Abstract

Introduction: The exponential increase in the elderly requires preparation of the health system, due to the higher prevalence of diseases, disabilities and hospitalization, what may require home care. Objective: To analyze the prevalence and factors associated to the need for assistance to perform basic activities of daily living (BADLs) after elderly’s hospital discharge. Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, carried out, in 2018, with 144 elderly people were admitted to a Brazilian university hospital. A telephone interview was carried out 30 days after hospital discharge, using a structured questionnaire based on national research surveys proposed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and articles. The dependent variable considered the need for assistance to perform BADL in the post-discharge period, and the sociodemographic, health, lifestyle and health services characteristics used were independent. Logistic regression analysis was applied using the SPSS 20 program, significance level p?0.05. The research was approved by the ethics committee (opinion number: 2,461,494 / 2018). Results: It was found that 43.1% of the elderly needed assistance to perform BADLs after hospital discharge. The greatest probability of needing assistance to perform the BADLs was for those who required admission to the ICU (OR = 2.9; CI = 1.15-7.31) (p = 0.02), presented multimorbidity (OR = 3, 00; CI = 1.42-6.34) (p = 0.00) and sedentary lifestyle (OR = 2.68; CI = 1.23-5.85 (p = 0.01). Conclusion: The study identified important factors associated to the need for assistance to perform basic activities of daily living in the post-discharge period of the elderly, with emphasis on the need for an ICU bed during hospitalization, multimorbidities and physical inactivity.