Acesso dos idosos aos serviços de saúde bucal no Centro de Saúde Guarani, Belo Horizonte

Abstract

Background: The historical " shortage " of offer of public services of attention to the oral health gone back to adults and elderly Brazilians, reveals a population with high prevalence of edentulism, decay and periodontal disease. The plurality and complexity of variables that influence in the access of elderly to the dental services summon the use of different approaches for the understanding of the reality locally observed and the adoption of the appropriate strategies for to improve your life quality. Objectives: To know the elderly individuals that frequent the Center of Health (CH) Guarani, your sociodemographic features, self-evaluation and perception of the oral health and other factors that influence in the access to the oral health services in this unit.Methods: We studied 70 individuals with 60 or more years of age, residents in the area of inclusion of CH Guarani, North area of Belo Horizonte. The study is coss-sectionial and the amostral calculation considered elderly registered in one of the Family Health Program (FHP) of this unit. Through a structured questionnaire, it was looked for to find the association among sociodemographics variables , self-evaluation and perception of the oral condition (GOHAI), tends as variable answer, the access to the services of oral health. A score was created to indicate access starting from the sum of answers to five questions - time of the last visit to the dentist, to have accomplished dental treatment in CH Guarani, to know of the existence of the service of oral health in this unit, to move until CH or to count with somebody to take the elderly to the dentist. The data were analyzed by the logistic regression, having as reference the category of positive access to the services of oral health (medium of the sum of the answers). Results: The elderly presented ages among 60 to 92 years, with average of 70,1 (pd=7,19 years), being 65,71% women. Most lives with your relatives (82,86%), family income superior to two minimum wages (74,29%) and knows to read or to write (84%). Of these, 85% just frequented the basic teaching. The access score to the oral health services was positive for 60% of the sample (escore>3), although 72% and 60% have affirmed that were never assisted by the the team of oral health and that visited a dentist there is more than 2 years, respectively. Larger access to the oral health services was observed in the age group from 60 to 69 years (68,57%, x2=5,17; p=0,07) and enter men (66,67%, x2=0,6.7; p=0,41). To Live with relatives showed independent effect in the access. To present larger income (> 2 minimum wages) and did to know to read and to write also indicate larger access (2=4,49, p=0,03; x2=5,82, p=0,01, respectively). most of the elderly presented a positive evaluation of the oral health (75,71%) and high perception of the oral condition (61%), without significant differences between sexes and age groups. In the univariate analysis, the following variables presented an independent effect (p <0,20) in the access: age, family situation, income and to know to read or to write. Was the variable age just access predict in the multivariate model (category of ages=> 80 years with value of p <0,05). Conclusions: The high positive value of the access score to the Oral Health Services of CH Guarani, contrasts with the drop search for these services and the elapsed time of the last visit to the dentist, indicating that the answers to the other variables used in your composition they had larger weight in the result. The family situation, education and income were shown directly related with the access when analyzed separately. Already in the multivariate analysis, just the variable age, with emphasis for the oldest individuals, with eighty or more years, was a predictor of access, indicating the need of special attention to this age group. The Team of oral Health should contemplate on the work process and like this, to make possible the improvement in the attention rendered with emphasis in the largest integration among the professionals of ESF. The senior needs the understanding of the sistemic situation, emotional, cognitive, social and economical for the formulation of a appropriate plan preventive and therapeutic your reality. The programming of activities gone back to the seniors it should look for the invigoration of your entail with the team of health and the family involvement. The access to the oral health service to the elderly should be guaranteed with actions that contribute to the well-being and improvement of the life quality and self-esteem. For this, the practice should be based, above all, in the beginnings of the integrality and interdisciplinary the promotion actions and Rehabilitation dental records of that population.