Health care needs of the old aged: Effectiveness in the offer and use of primary health care services

Abstract

The effectiveness of the primary care offered and the use of these services made by the aged population approached in the baseline studies of the PROESF conducted by the UFPel included 41 municipalities of the States Alagoas, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí and Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. This transversal study was designed to characterize the structure and work process of 234 UBS, 4,749 workers and 4,003 aged people. The worst social indicators were observed in the Northeast of the country and in the PSF. There was a great need for regular domestic care and the prevalence rates of Systemic Arterial Hypertension (SAH) and Diabetes Mellitus (DM) were high. The use of protocols in domestic care was not very frequent and only half of the workers were capacitated to providing care to SAH and DM. Half of carriers of SAH and DM used the UBS of their region, practically all of them used medication, half of the individuals obtained their medication in the UBS and less than the half participated in the group activities in the UBS. A loss in effectiveness was observed in both in the offer and in the use of services. A comparison showed the performance of the PSF to be better that the traditional model.