Frailty and social network among older Brazilian adults: evidence from ELSI-Brazil.

To investigate the elements of the social network associated with frailty syndrome in older Brazilian adults. Baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil, 2015-2016) were used. Frailty was defined by the Fried phenotype (unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, weakness, slowness, and low level of physical activity).

Greater Care Program in the face of the challenges of aging: a qualitative analysis.

Objective: To understand the perception of different actors involved in the older adults care process in the intersectoral strategy of the Programa Maior Cuidado (PMC - Greater Care Program), aiming at the development of actions that contribute to the improvement of the services provided.

Methods: Eleven qualitative interviews guided by a semi-structured script were conducted in 2020 with key informants directly involved in the PMC: the older adults and their families, caregivers, health professionals and social assistance. In addition, to understand the functioning and proposals of the PMC, a documentary analysis was also carried out with the tracking of existing information on the guidelines, protocols, and management instruments.

"My life is about to take care of myself": therapeutic itineraries of care for frail older adults.

The present study sought to understand how frail older adults perceive their therapeutic care itineraries. This qualitative research was based on Critical Medical Anthropology. Data were collected through interviews in the homes of 22 older adults, whose average age was 79.

Evaluation of Long-Term Institutions for Older People in Brazil: an overview of regional inequalities.

This article aims to evaluate the Brazilian Long-Term Institutions for Older People (LTIE), according to the Integrated Multidimensional Theoretical Model of Quality and Service (MIQA), and compare the performance achieved between the regions of the country. Descriptive ecological study carried out with public secondary data from the LTIE participating in the 2018 Census of the Unified Social Assistance System. An Evaluation Matrix was constructed from the Census variables and the MIQA Theoretical Model.

End-of-life perspectives according to family caregivers of older adults with dementia: A qualitative study.

Background: Family caregivers are primarily responsible for the care of older adults with dementia, and the demands of this care increase as the end of life approaches. Experiencing the end of a family member's life can be stressful, and caregivers consider important to know how to identify when their loved one is approaching the end of life in order to prepare for this moment. Thus, as the family is primarily responsible for the older adult with dementia, it is essential to know the meanings of the end of life attributed by family caregivers.

Death and Other Losses in the COVID-19 Pandemic in Long-Term Care Facilities for Older Adults in the Perception of Occupational Therapists: A Qualitative Study.

Long-term care facilities for older adults (LTCFs) were directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to discuss the perceptions of occupational therapists about deaths and other losses in LTCFs during the pandemic. This qualitative study is anchored in social phenomenology, and conducted in-depth interviews with eight occupational therapists who worked in LTCFs.

Building the capacity of community health workers to support health and social care for dependent older people in Latin America: a pilot study in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Background: Brazil is seeing rapid population ageing, which is leading to new demands on primary health care services. There is a need to develop and assess the effectiveness of new interventions to build the capacity of staff, including community health workers, to meet the needs of groups such as care-dependent older people and their care-givers. This study examines the feasibility of a small training intervention piloted in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza.

Integrated Care in the Community: The Case of the (Older Adult Care Programme) in Belo Horizonte-Minas Gerais, BRA.

Internationally, there is a large body of scientific evidence concerning the benefits of integrating health and social care to ensure that frail older people living in the community receive the assistance they need to maintain independence. In the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, located in the state of Minas Gerais, an integrated care intervention has been developed: the (PMC). This programme represents a pioneering example in Brazil of the provision of carers for highly vulnerable older people, through integrated action between public health and social service agencies.

[Care of the elderly individual in pain in the field of Public Health practices].

Pain involves sociocultural and psychosocial dimensions that influence the experience and expression of the pain phenomenon, as well as the human and technological resources required for its care. This article seeks to understand the meaning attributed by elderly people to care of the person in old age who experiences pain and discuss it from the approach to pain in public health practices. The research was developed using a qualitative anthropological approach and based on the intersubjective contact between the researcher and the individuals researched.

Meeting the complex challenge of health and social care provision for rapidly-ageing populations: introducing the concept of "avoidable displacement from home".

The increasing numbers of people at very old ages pose specific policy challenges for health and social care and highlight the need to rethink established models of service provision. The main objective of this paper is to introduce the concept of "avoidable displacement from home" (ADH). The study argues that ADH builds on and adds value to existing concepts, offering a holistic, person-centered framework for integrated health and social care provision for older people.

[Alterity of the body of the elderly: estrangement and pain in Public Health].

In old age, the ailing patient's body becomes estranged and reveals an awareness of alterity. This paper investigates how the body of the elderly addresses the estrangement as a subject, producing its own actions in the experience of disease and practice of public health. The research, developed using the qualitative approach of an anthropological nature, is based on the assumptions of ethnography.

Performance pattern of activities of daily living for older adults in the city of São Paulo in 2000, 2006, and 2010.

Introduction: Functionality in aging is associated with the autonomy and independence of older people.

Objective: To identify and hierarchize the difficulties reported by older adults in performing activities of daily living.

Method: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive, household-based study that used the Health, Well-being, and Aging Study (Saúde, Bem-Estar e Envelhecimento - SABE) database of 2000, 2006, and 2010.

[Deaths that save lives: the complexities of medical care for patients with suspected brain death].

The objective of this study was to understand how physicians at the largest emergency department in a large Brazilian city orient care for critical patients with suspected brain death and who are potential organ donors. This ethnographic study was conducted in an emergency care hospital, a reference in traumatology in Latin America, located in downtown Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State. The institution took pioneering steps in Brazil with a specific sector where patients with suspected brain death are referred.

Care and functional disabilities in daily activities - ELSI-Brazil.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of demand and provision of care for the Brazilian population with functional disabilities in activities of daily living.

Methods: This is a quantitative and descriptive study using baseline data from ELSI-Brazil (Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging), a cohort study with a representative sample of the Brazilian population aged 50 years or older (n = 9,412). We considered the demand for care from the self-report of having some difficulty to perform at least one activity of daily life (eating, bathing, going to the toilet, dressing, moving in a room [ambulation], and transferring from chair [transfer]).

The physician in the face of death in the emergency room.

Objective: To analyze how physicians, as part of a sociocultural group, handle the different types of death, in a metropolitan emergency service.

Methods: This is an ethnography carried out in one of the largest emergency services in Latin America. We have collected the data for nine months with participant observation and interviews with 43 physicians of different specialties - 25 men and 18 women, aged between 28 and 69 years.

[Reflections on ethnography in the emergency department].

: Ethnography is the principal research method in Anthropology. With a broad scope, it allows using different data collection techniques and incorporates elements observed and obtained in the field into the analysis. In Public Health, it can contribute to understanding the health/disease process and health professionals' and patients' values and attitudes in different healthcare settings.

[Home visits by community health agents to families with frail elderly individuals].

The scope of this study was to understand the significance that community health agents attribute to the home visit conducted with families with frail elderly individuals and if the technique has served as a tool for care for this group. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with community health agents in the city of Bambui in the State of Minas Gerais. They were all recorded, transcribed and analyzed.

'Otherness' of pain in Collective Health practices: implications for healthcare for the aged.

This article seeks to understand the significance attributed by the elderly in the community to their experiences of pain based on the approach given to pain in collective health practices. The survey adopts a qualitative approach of an anthropological nature, grounded on the prerequisites of ethnography. Individual interviews were held, using a semi-structured script, with a universe of 57 elderly people.

Old age, disability and care in public health.

Aging of the population profoundly changes the scope of action of public health, altering the profile of morbidity-mortality and increasing the demand for chronic care. In the aging population, disability serves as an indicator of health and a guideline for actions and policies. This enquiry, with a qualitative approach, based on interpretative anthropology and the emic perspective, aims to understand the way of thinking and acting of old people in the face of 'old age with disability' and their relationships with public health.

[Functionality and disability in old age: to stay still or not to stay still].

The goals of this study were to identify how community-dwelling elderly deal with the prospect of disability/functionality and to understand how the sociocultural context modulates this process. The study adopted a qualitative approach in which the signs, meanings, and actions model was used in the data collection and analysis. The study interviewed 57 elders ranging from 61 to 96 years of age and enrolled in the six primary health units in Bambuí, Minas Gerais State, Brazil.

Diabetes, hypertension and mobility among Brazilian older adults: findings from the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (1998, 2003 and 2008).

Background: The rapid population ageing has been accompanied by a growing number of older adults experiencing chronic conditions, especially diabetes and hypertension, which are conditions associated to the decline in physical functioning. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in the strength of the association between mobility and two chronic conditions (hypertension and diabetes) in a large representative sample of Brazilian older adults over a ten year period.

Methods: The data came from the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) of 1998, 2003 and 2008.

Chronic use of benzodiazepines among older adults.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the perception of and motivation for the chronic use of benzodiazepine among older adults. METHODS A qualitative study was conducted on 22 older adults living in Bambuí, MG, Southeastern Brazil, who were taking benzodiazepines and had the clinical and cognitive ability to respond to interview questions. The collected data were analyzed on the basis of the "signs, meanings, and actions" model.

[Assessment of the technology of care relations in the health services: perception of the elderly included in the family health strategy in Bambuí, Brazil].

In the health field, technologies of care relations are in the scope of the worker-user encounter, implying intersubjectivity with the development of relationships between subjects, resulting in action. Evaluation studies synthesize knowledge produced on the consequences of using these technologies for society. This anthropological study aims to understand the perception of the elderly regarding the resolution capability and effectiveness of the acts produced in health care relationships in the context of the Family Health Strategy (ESF).

[Ways of thinking and acting of the elderly when tackling functionality/disability issues].

Functionality is a crucial dimension of the health of the elderly. The aim of this work is to investigate the elements that comprise the significance of disability for the elderly residents of the city of Bambuí in the state of Minas Gerais. A qualitative approach was adopted in which the model of signs, significance and actions was used in both data collection and analysis.