Publication

Estado nutricional de idosos: caracterização dos cuidados prestados nas Misericórdias de Portugal Continental

Bibliographic Details
Summary:In the past years, ageing and the modifications associated with the familiar dynamic, have contributed to an increase of the number of institutionalised elders. Concerning to institutions, care given for these people is becoming less individualized, leading to numerous cases of malnutrition, some pre other post admission. Screening could allow reducing costs with specialized care, nutritional supplements and promote quality of elder's life. Our aim with this study, was to characterize the type of care given to elderly at Portuguese institutions, concerning to nutritional and health status. At the analysed institutions in study, we found that more importance was given to other "health individuals" rather than nutritionists, whose collaboration was verified only in 30 % of sample. In 97%, medical assistance was regular. Dehydration is already a concerning for some institutions, although in some cases the strategies used for its prevention weren't the most adequate. The majority of studied institutions (72%) evaluated global nutritional status at admission, mostly using anthropometric, clinic and biochemical parameters in association. The implementation of a policy of nutritional status assessment, made up with regular screening and detailed assessment in most critical situations, will certainly add a best prediction value to individuals in these conditions.
Subject:Health sciences, Other medical sciences Ciências da Saúde, Outras ciências médicas
Country:Portugal
Document type:journal article
Access type:Restricted
Associated institution:Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto
Language:Portuguese
Origin:Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto

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