Journal of Nursing and Health Studies

Evaluation of the nursing diagnosis risk for falls in the elderly in primary healthcare

9^th Annual Congress on Nursing & Healthcare
December 03-04, 2018 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Paulo Henrique Fernandes dos Santos, Marina Morato Stival, Luciano Ramos de Lima, Walterlania Silva Santos, Cris Renata Grou Volpe, Tania Cristina Morais Santa Barbara Rehem and Silvana Schwerz Funghetto

University of Brasilia, Brazil

ScientificTracks Abstracts: J Nurs Health Stud

DOI: 10.21767/2574-2825-C5-014

Abstract

Objective: The objective is to evaluate the nursing diagnosis risk for falls of NANDA-I in the elderly in primary healthcare in the Federal District/Brazil. Methodology: Descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study performed in two basic health units, with a sample of 156 elderly patients with chronic diseases. The data collection consisted in blood collection, nursing consultation and assessment of the risk of falls. The data were analysed in statistical software SPSS 21.0. Results: The majority of the sample was female (79.5%), mean age of 67.9±5.8 years, with hypertension (80.8%), diabetes mellitus (59.6%), or both (48.1%). The elderly presented a high prevalence of history of falls (71.2%). The intrinsic risk factors of NANDA-I most prevalent were visual impairment (73.7%), impaired mobility (70.5%) and history of falls (69.9%), and the extrinsic factors were insufficient anti-slip material in the bathroom (60.3%) and use of throw rugs (58.3%). The intrinsic factors that increased the risk of falls were the use of assistive device (Odds Ratio–OR 3.50; p=0.030), difficulty with gait (OR 2.84; p=0.019) and alteration in cognitive functioning (OR 1.26; p=0.019); the extrinsic factor was throw rugs (OR 1.59; p=0.041). Conclusion: This diagnosis has proved to be an effective tool that helps nurses in the screening of vulnerability to falls. The study contributed to remedy a gap of studies prepared to evaluate this nursing diagnosis in the elderly in the context of primary healthcare, in addition to demonstrating the importance of its use in conjunction with other tools for assessment the risk of falls, aiming at the planning of preventive actions of risk factors for these accidents.

Biography

Paulo Henrique Fernandes dos Santos has completed his Masters’ from Health Sciences and Technologies Program of the University of Brasilia, Brazil. Currently, he is Professor of Nursing Department, University of Brasilia, and conducts research about Human Aging, Nursing Process and Primary Healthcare.

E-mail: paulofs@unb.br