Ambiente físico e acessibilidade espacial: contribuições para o cuidado de enfermagem na prevenção de quedas em idosos

Abstract

The increasing elderly population provides significant challenges to maintaining quality of life and health status. One of these challenges includes the dimension of the physical space and accessibility for the elderly in nursing homes, because the physical environment is an important component to maintain health or to trigger disease processes, such as falls. Falls can lead to disastrous consequences for the elderly in terms of morbidity, loss of autonomy and independence. The aim of this paper is to discuss the implications of the physical environment and the design of spatial accessibility for the prevention of falls in elderly, attended the Family Health Units. This is a descriptive study of a literature review of scientific papers which studied the relationship between falls and spatial accessibility. The search was conducted of articles in databases: LILACS, SCIELO, BIREME, BVS and MEDLINE using the following descriptors: spatial accessibility, elderly, geriatric nursing, physical environment, nursing care, primary care. We found 18 articles that addressed the proposed objective. We conclude that the falls in the elderly are related to the physical environment and spatial accessibility. The nurse's family health team should pay attention to this aspect, taking into account the notion of spatial accessibility in their home visits, becoming an agent capable of intervening in the environment to prevent falls in the elderly.