Abusive Consumption Of Alcohol By Elderly

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the abusive consumption of alcohol in the elderly in the municipality of Santa Cruz - PB. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study, with quantitative approach with a sample of 170 elderly. To perform the study, three instruments were used: the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test - Geriatric Version (MAST-G). The data were analyzed in the program Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS - version 21). Results: 14.7% of the elderly were classified by the MAST-G score as elderly individuals presenting problems related to alcohol abuse, the majority of whom were male, single, with education above 05 years, who reside alone, and present some pathology and make use of medications. Conclusion: the research points out the need for multiprofessional work in health in Primary Care, in order to develop health actions that include the prevention of alcohol consumption and minimize the deleterious effects of consumption, in order to reduce the number of undesirable events arising from the use of that substance. Keywords: Primary health care; Alcohol; Old man.