Vulnerability of families of elderly citizens cared for by the Family Health Strategy.

Objective: the present descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional study aimed to identify the vulnerability of families of elderly citizens cared for by the Family Health Strategy (FHS).

Method: the research employed home interviews and was developed with a sample of 500 families of aged people cared for by 32 FHS teams in the city of Dourados, MS, Brazil. The Family Development Index (FDI) was adapted in order to classify the families according to their degree of vulnerability.

[Evaluation of professional knowledge and attitudes on dementia patient care: a trans-cultural adaptation of an evaluation instrument].

Objective: To describe the trans-cultural adaptation of the evaluation instrument entitled Atenció Sanitària de Les Demències: la visió de L' Atenció Primarià from Catalan into versions in Portuguese for doctors and nurses. This study evaluates the knowledge and perspectives of these professionals in their treatment of patients diagnosed with dementia in cases of primary care.

Method: The adaptation followed internationally accepted rules, which include the following steps: translation, synthesis, back-translation, revision by a committee of specialists, and a test run with 35 practicing doctors and 35 practicing nurses in Brazil's Family Health Strategy (Estratégia Saúde da Família, or ESF in Portuguese).

[Family functioning of elderly with depressive symptoms].

Objective: To classify families of elderly with depressive symptoms regarding their functioning and to ascertain the presence of an association between these symptoms, family functioning and the characteristics of the elderly.

Method: This was an observational, analytical, cross-sectional study performed with 33 teams of the Family Health Strategy in Dourados, MS. The sample consisted of 374 elderly divided into two groups (with and without depressive symptoms).